Racetrack Insider - News and Views of the Motorsports Industry from Insiders Drew Patey and Buddy Judy

Rain, Caution, Caution, Rain - Logano Wins

Loudon, New Hampshire was the site of the NASCAR Sprint Cup race this weekend. At the end of the day, Joey Logano made history by becoming the youngest driver to win in the Sprint Cup Series. Logano took the victory in the multi-caution rain-shortened race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway by gambling after being a lap down earlier in the race. The 19-year old cut a tire and spun early in the race so he was on a different pit strategy to the leaders. As the race came down to the final laps, he was only a few laps away from having to stop for fuel when a caution came out for rain with 36 laps remaining. The rest of the field had already pitted leaving Jeff Gordon, who lead 65 laps, expecting to retake the lead of the race during the next pit stops, but cautions and rain changed the outcome and he finished in second. The big caution of the day came out just after half way when Kyle Busch ran out of brain power and tapped Martin Truex after Dale, Jr. spun his tires on a restart, resulting in 10 cars going to the garage. Safety-Kleen's Kurt Busch was out in front of that big wreck. Remember last year when Kurt won the race due to rain - this year he finished a strong third and would have contended for the win if mother nature hadn't come calling. David Reutimann also gambled on strategy at the end of the race and he finished in fourth place, putting him firmly in contention for a Chase spot with only 10 races left before The Chase starts in September. Tony Stewart, who wasted a race car on Friday during practice, struggled in the first part of the race starting from the pole due to the rainout of qualifying, but he fell back at the start and fought back to score fifth. Brad Keselowski also lucked into a strategy gamble to finish in sixth place finish ahead of Kyle Busch and Safety-Kleen's Sam Hornish, Jr. The Salisbury branch serviced the track this weekend. Thanks to Greg and John for pitching in. Now off to Daytona for next Saturday's race.