Logano pulls away for Richmond win
Joey Logano pulled away after a restart with about 20 laps to go to win the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond International (Va.) Raceway on Sunday.
Logano, who qualified fifth but had to start 37th after making a transmission change, grabbed the lead from Penske Racing teammate Brad Keselowski when Keselowski had to make a defensive move to keep Kyle Busch from sneaking past him on the inside.
Logano then had to get around Kyle Larson and five others who stayed on the track when everyone else pitted with just more than 20 laps remaining. Logano made quick work of that challenge and took control while Keselowski and Denny Hamlin dueled for the second position.
“We were just fast enough to break through and kind of steal a win,” Logano said. “We had a decent car. We were in the lead when the caution came out there and we looked like we were in pretty good shape, and then, obviously, to have the good pit stops and all that, I don’t know if you’d call that stealing. We didn’t get lucky. We were able to just do what we know how to do.”
Keselowski , who had the dominant car for the second half of the race, held second, followed by Hamlin, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kevin Harvick. Formula One: Valtteri Bottas fended off hard-charging Sebastian Vettel and outshone Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton to claim his first career Formula One win in the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi.
Ferrari’s Vettel, who had started on the pole, still extended his standings lead to 13 points over Hamilton, who trailed in fourth after dealing with overheating trouble. Bottas is third, 10 points further back. NHRA: Steve Torrence won the Top Fuel event in the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C. Torrence had a 3.783-second pass at 323.89 mph to beat points leader Leah Pritchett, eight-time season champion Tony Schumacher and Terry McMillen in the final round. Ron Capps won in Funny Car.