KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Last week’s horrific crash at Dover, Del., certainly didn’t slow down Joey Logano.
The Middletown, Conn., driver passed NASCAR Nationwide points leader Kyle Busch with three laps left yesterday at Kansas Speedway, pulling out his fourth victory of the season.
Logano flipped his car seven times last week, but showed no signs of fear yesterday, overcoming a missed opportunity with six laps left.
Busch, who has finished second in all four of the races Logano has won this season, appeared to have the strongest car all day, taking the lead from pole-sitter Parker Kligerman on Lap 9 and losing it only twice during cautions in the first 196 laps.
He led 173 of the 200 laps on the 1 1/2-mile oval and has led 2,226 laps this season, breaking the series record of 2,127 set by Sam Ard in 1984.
Logano, who started seventh, stayed on Busch’s bumper most of the day and appeared to lose his best chance to pass coming out of a caution in the closing laps. Trying to pass Busch on the inside, Logano nearly lost control of his car and had to back off, dropping in behind Busch.
The 19-year-old quickly made up the lost ground and got Busch two laps later, racing past him on the inside to pull out the victory. Brad Keselowski finished third, followed by Kevin Harvick, Greg Biffle, and Justin Allgaier.
Busch leads Carl Edwards, who finished seventh, by 245 points with six races left in the Nationwide series.
Logano starts 18th, Busch 34th in today’s Price Chopper 400, but neither is a finalist in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.
Points leader Mark Martin has the pole after a 175.758-mile-per-hour lap Friday. Defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, just 10 points behind Martin after two of 10 races in the Chase, starts 11th.
The 50-year-old Martin has never won a season championship, finishing second four times. He has experienced a racing renaissance this year, winning five races and finishing in the top 10 11 other times to bolt to the top of the Sprint Cup standings. He has captured a career-best seven poles.
Kligerman had a rough first Nationwide race yesterday after what had been an incredible start to the weekend.
The 19-year-old raced to his eighth ARCA victory of the season Thursday, moving within 15 points of series leader Justin Lofton. Kligerman then became the 10th driver in series history to win the pole in his first Nationwide start despite having never run a practice lap before this weekend.
The race was a bit of a struggle.
Kligerman, a developmental driver for Penske Racing, lost the lead to Busch early and kept dropping through the field, falling to 21st after 60 laps. He made a small rally from there and finished 16th.
