The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Logano races to victory in Vegas
LAS VEGAS >> Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski were side by side off the fourth turn, two teammates fighting for the last burst of speed on the final lap at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Logano barely managed to block Keselowski’s move, and the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion hung on for his first win in his title defense season.
“That was more intense than I wanted it to be,” Logano said.
Logano held off Keselowski on March 3 for his first Cup victory in Vegas, driving his Team Penske Ford to his 22nd career win.
“There’s been plenty of times here when we’ve led a lot of laps here, but we’ve never won, and that’s the most important stat to have,” Logano said. “Something happens at the end, and Brad becomes the fastest car and he wins. I looked in the mirror, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is happening again.’”
But after narrowly answering Keselowski’s lastlap passing attempt, Logano celebrated his victory in NASCAR’s first race under its full new rules package designed to foster tight racing and excitement.
“What a great race,” Logano said. “Brad and I were so evenly matched, and you just can’t pull away (under the new rules). My heart is still running.”
Excitement is exactly what NASCAR got on the final lap, although the quality of the 266 laps before that sharply divided drivers and observers — no surprise in a sport that rarely agrees on much of anything.
The Vegas race featured no cautions, which meant the thrilling restarts expected under the new rules were limited to a couple of wild laps after the two segment breaks.
“There towards the end, the way this drafting package, these rules work, it was intense,” Logano said. “You can’t get away. You’re constantly looking around. Mentally, I’m exhausted right now . ... It proves you don’t need crashes to have an exciting race. There’s so much strategy that goes into driving these race cars now. I thought it was as entertaining as can be. I don’t really know what to say if you don’t like that.”
Keselowski drove up from 19th to take the lead with 27 laps left, but his hopes for back-to-back victories were dashed when Logano passed him while getting held up by lapped traffic.
“I’d like to have one more lap,” said Keselowski, who won the playoff race in Vegas last September. “It was a good battle, and we were both fighting really hard at the top. It seemed like it came down to what the lapped cars were going to do.”
Kyle Busch finished third, unable to recover from a mid-race speeding penalty in the hometown driver’s quest for the third three-race weekend sweep in NASCAR history. As you might expect, Busch wasn’t a fan of the new rules’ effects on his racing.