Logano wins at Pocono

Joey Logano started from the pole today for the running of the Pocono 400 on its newly paved track and lead the most laps with 48 laps to take the win away from Mark Martin for his second NASCAR win in 125 races and became the youngest winner of the Pocono raceway besting Jeff Gordon.

Mark Martin said he drove into the turn to pass Logano with 12 laps to go as fast as he thought he could go and not wreck. When that did not work, he drove it into the turn faster than he thought it would stick and did pass Logano for the lead for 3 laps.

But with 4-laps to go, Logano put a bumper to the rear of the no.55 car and moved him aside taking the lead and then driving off to win the race.

Logano said, “It is a surreal feeling to get Jason Ratliff his first NASCAR win and I am real happy about that ”

Logano said, “It was really important to do the tire test here at Pocono and it still takes the same things, but it was different.  First couple of laps of the race today, it was pretty slippery and restarts are always chaotic here and they were again.”

Jason Ratcliff said,” it seems like we have been here for a month and I may move up here with this Kind of success.” When asked about the speeding penalties, Ratcliff said that ” he just thought it was guys being a little bit too aggressive”.

Martin, who finished second to Logano said, “I stuck my neck out to get the lead and Joey was just stronger than we were. I had a slip off of turn 3 and Joey was able to get by me and if we had the car we would have raced for the win. Joey was just able to pull away and I am one of the luckiest guys in the world to drive a race car and maybe next time we will get a trophy.”

When Martin was asked about the move  Logano made on him, Martin said it was “a bump and run and if i had the car to do it, he (Logano) would have gotten it back again, but i just did not have the car to do it with”.

When asked about the 22 speeding penalties assessed against drivers on pit road in this race, Martin said that he does not feel he can not overcome a penalty on, so he stays under the timing line instead of pushing the limit.  Martin said “I want to look my guys in the eye when i am done, and if i got a penalty, i don’t think i could if I cost us that much time with a speeding penalty.”

When asked about the paving of the track, Martin said, “Huge shout-out to Pocono Speedway and the paving Company. I don’t think it is possible to have a first race event this good- better than t his one. I don’t think it would be possible . I only hope an pray that Michigan races as well as this died. this was absolutely the best i can ever remember for a new pavement. Shout out to Goodyear, as well, fantastic tires, no failures. ”

Tony Stewart who finished third thought the drivers that were caught speeding simply failed to pay attention to the pit road speed. Stewart was happy with his car and felt that his 19th top-10 finish in 27 races at Pocono Raceway was a good showing, but he would have preferred a win.

Matt Kenneth leads the series points standing by 10 points ahead of second place driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. who finished 8th in today’s race.

The top ten was Joey Logano, 1st, Mark Martin, 2nd, Tony Stewart, 3rd, Jimmie Johnson, 4th, Denny Hamlin, 5th, Clint Boyer, 6th, Matt Kensenth, 7th, Dale Earnhart Jr., 8th, Paul Menard, 9th, and Jamie McMurray, 10th.