Afforded an opportunity, Joey Logano secures victory at Talladega

Ray Slover

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Afforded an opportunity, Joey Logano secures victory at Talladega image

In the end, Joey Logano had too much for the rest of the Chase contenders at Talladega.

But not by much. Logano needed a big finish to advance in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and he got it by winning Sunday at Talladega. It was a big day for Fords, with one major exception.

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Nothing is ever easy at Talladega. "It's always close," Logano said. "You never get a big lead.  

"We got that track position and just hung onto it. I was able to stay on the bottom and try to run the bottom and keep everyone in line, and that worked out really well.  

Logano saw Penske teammate Brad Keselowski dominate Sunday's race early, only to watch as Keselowski's engine blew. After leading a race-high 90 laps, Keselowski — whose only chance to advance to the Round of 8 was by winning — creaked to the garage after 144 laps. He finished 38th.

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Meanwhile, Logano ran up front in the latter stages of Sunday's Hellmann's 500. He had to wonder whether he would have the same problem as Keselowski.

Especially as Logano began the final three-slap shootout with debris on his car's grill.
 
"I got nervous, but I can't see the nose obviously. It wasn't that bad," Logano said. "It picked up maybe 20 degrees or so, but we had a good enough cushion to be able to pick up a little bit of garbage and be OK.  Everything worked out as planned, I guess."

Logano's biggest help came from a surprising source. Brian Scott, a rookie for Richard Petty Motorsports, helped push Logano and keep challengers at bay. In a race that requires teamwork to win, they were unlikely but successful allies.

It was Scott's best finish by a country mile. Before that, Scott was 12th at Fontana. Sunday was his only top-10 finish of the season to date.

Logano also gave credit to another unlikely source: Kevin Harvick, who was on the restart's second row and pushing.

"Kevin did a good job with that, which ultimately got us all a great finish," Logano said.  

"It was fun racing there at the end. I was really confused. I didn't know what lane to pick coming to the last restart, but I knew Kevin had a lot of experience in these situations and is great at speedway racing, so he did a good job of pushing me out and then had to defend the top lane with Brian Scott, so a couple of Fords out front here at Talladega is pretty cool."

Logano won all three races in the 2015 Chase's Round of 12. He seemed ready to dominate the series until he paid for spinning out Matt Kenseth at Kansas.

Now Logano goes to Martinsville, where he was out front last year before Kenseth rammed him in revenge. Logano never got back into Chase contention while Kenseth paid for his payback with a two-race suspension.

Denied a chance to contend for the Chase championship last year, Logano heads to Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix with confidence. Remember, he was third at Kansas before winning the Talladega crapshoot.

"If we can get through this round … it was going to be tough after what happened in Charlotte," said Logano, who had tire problems and crashed in the Round of 12 opener. "So to be able to recover and win in a clutch moment like this to move us on feels really, really good."

Ray Slover