Joey Logano Wins the Pepsi 300

Joey Logano finally got the first victory of the year he’s been dreaming of for awhile as he moved by teammate Kyle Busch with only nine laps left go to the finish line as millions of fans looked on around the world and then fought off all challengers to take the trophy and title in the Pepsi 300 Nationwide Series race at Nashville Superspeedway at Nashville.

The Nationwide Series Pepsi 300

The win is also the first Nationwide Series victory for the JGR No.20 team and first for crew chief Dave Rogers, since he was suspended last year.

For Joey Logano this is only the second victory of his budding career, he drove to victory for the first time one year ago on the Kentucky Speedway, and was running pretty good last year in the Pepsi 300 Nationwide Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, before lady-luck turned against him, and he was involved in another cars crash. Logano showed great style and emotion during the win and held his trophy triumphantly above his head with the brightest of smiles before putting it in its case after the race, a Sam-Bass Les Paul Guitar which is a unique trophy awarded to the winner of the Pepsi 300 Nationwide Series race.

The Pepsi 300 turned out to be mainly a battle between Gibbs teammates as Busch and Logano jockeyed back and forth through out the race, leading a total of 172 of 225 of the races laps, which says a lot for the cars, drivers and mechanics of Gibbs racing. Joey Logano and Busch certainly had the most consistent and fastest cars on the track, but Logano’s car ran faster on the short runs, which was a major advantage, while Busch’s car ran a little better on the long runs.

The second place finish allowed Busch to move to within 23 points of the Points Leader on the Nationwide Series, Carl Edwards, who just kept his car between the lines and never really challenged for the lead. The Pepsi 300 was also a good race for Brad Keselowski who was able to keep his car together and be consistent enough to finish third, Kelly Bires finished ahead of Carl Edwards (the current points leader on the Nationwide Series) for fourth. The final six places on the final grid were taken by Jason Leffler, David Ragan, Mike Bliss, Steve Wallace, and Scott Lagasse Jr.

Image: Newscom