Logano continues strong runs, wins fifth Nationwide series race

BY MARK SCHAFER

If Joey Logano wanted to win his fifth Nationwide series of the year, it seemed like he was going to have to survive about five different restarts at the end.

But he did.

Each time, Logano was able to use the high line and pull away from field and eventually pull into victory lane for the second straight time in the NASCAR Nationwide series as well as the second straight week, after winning in the Sprint Cup Series at Pocono.

“Just a lot of confidence on myself and my crew, there hasn’t been an opportunity that we’ve slipped up on,” Logano said after the race. “[I had a] really good car. Did what I had to do.”

In order to get the win though, confidence would not be enough for Logano. He had to hold off a strong car that started second on each and every restart after he took the lead late in the race.

The first restart, Logano had to hold off championship points leader, Elliott Sadler. Then after a caution, Logano had to hold off Paul Menard, who had led the most laps at the two and half mile Michigan International Speedway.

“Just make sure you just go through the gears, these cars punch such a big hole in the air that it’s hard to get away from the cars,” Logano said after the race to ABC reporters.

After yet another caution, this time it was James Buescher that would challenge Logano for the lead. As it turns out Logano would be the biggest challenge for Logano all day.

Buescher and Logano would battle for four laps after the restart. A few times Buescher would look to the inside of Logano, but it wasn’t until the final lap that tried to make his move.

Going into turns one and two Buescher went low to try and get the lead. However Logano kept his momemtum up on the high side and would drive away from Buescher on the backstretch and go on to get the win.

“I knew the 30 [Buescher] was waiting on it,” Logano said after the race about the move Buescher was going to try and make. “I saw him do it and I started to block, but knew if I stayed high, I’d have the momentum. I was better in three and four than he was. I knew he was probably going to try and dive bomb me coming off the front stretch.”

For Buescher, he knew trying to go low to get the pass for the lead was a risky move.

“I thought I was going to get Joey on the last lap, but once I got on the flatter part of the banking I just got loose,” Buescher said after the race to ABC reporters.

Buescher, who won the season opening race at Daytona, would have to settle for second after his dive bomb attempt failed.

“[Logano] was definitely faster than me through the corners,” Buescher said after the race. “I was planning on waiting til the last lap to do something. It was looser on the bottom, I kind of expected it to be, but took it anyway and hoped it stuck, but it didn’t.”

This is the first time that a Toyota has won at Michigan in the Nationwide series.

Rounding out the top five in today’s race was Kurt Busch in third, Cole Whitt in fourth and Austin Dillon in fifth.

It was another tough day for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. He fell back in the pack early in the race and would finish 25th. Because of that, Dillon took over second place in the points, just eight points behind Sadler.

Alliance Truck Parts 250 results: