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

Logano Does It Again - This Week in California

Joey Logano won for the fifth time the year in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in a crazy race that saw a ton of cautions in the late stages of the event. The beginning of the race was all about Kyle Busch, but by lap 40, the flu that had plagued Busch all week was too much and he pitted and exited the car - Denny Hamlin took over. Hamlin wasted no time and started to charge back to the front. He restarted in 24th place and he was inside the top ten in eight laps. On lap 107, he put the #18 Toyota back in the lead after beating Safety-Kleen's Brad Keselowski on the restart. Cautions breed cautions and after four more, it was still the Hamlin - Keselowski battle for the lead. Greg Biffle, however, had other plans and with only 11 laps from the checkered flag, Keselowski went down the inside of Hamlin at Turn 3, while Biffle was on the outside of both. Keselowski and Hamlin started sliding up the banking, until Hamlin closed the door on Biffle, both making contact and hitting the wall, while Keselowski was able to stay out of harm's way to retake the lead. On the following restart, Logano jumped from third to first, taking advantage of new tires. However, the caution came out again for a spinning Scott Speed with only two laps before the scheduled finish. The final shootout came setting up a two lap sprint. Logano was able to stay up front as Edwards got hit by Keselowski after the Roush Fenway driver got too much wheelspin off the line during the restart. Logano went on the take the flag with Brian Vickers finishing second, driving for Braun Racing with sponsorship from Safety-Kleen. Carl Edwards had a strong finish and cut the lead to 155 behind Kyle Busch in the championship. Safety-Kleen driver Kevin Harvick finished fourth, while Keselowski's final restart put him down to fifth in the end, losing ground to Edwards in the championship. Charlotte is next week - stay tuned for this battle as the Nationwide season is not over yet.