General

Joey Logano wins Food City 250 at Bristol, new surface starts to breed excitement

Aug 25, 2012, 9:19 PM UTC

Well that’s more like it.

While I wouldn’t advocate a 36-race schedule full of short tracks, Friday night represented everything I value about motorsports. The Food City 250 contained close-quarter, high-contact racing, and the best of what new Bristol is capable of.

In the end, Joey Logano won, holding off Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Elliott Sadler and Kyle Busch to win his sixth Nationwide Series race of 2012 and first at the World’s Fastest Half-Mile.

With respect to Logano’s savvy driving performance, much of the credit has to go to crew chief Adam Stevens who made tough decisions to net his driver track position all night long. Logano responded by driving around long-time leader Kevin Harvick and holding off the hard-charging Stenhouse in what’s best described as a total team performance.

If Friday night’s race is a preview for things to come in tonight’s IRWIN Tools Night Race, I suspect fans will be pretty happy with the changes made to Bristol’s track surface. The new layout forces the drivers to drive right on top of each other, prompting Kyle Busch to say that track officials “made it worse.”

That translates to “they made it more exciting,” according to my driver-to-English handbook.

I’ve wrote before that drivers shouldn’t be comfortable in their cars. NASCAR races shouldn’t be easy to drive and neither should the circuits. The sport is flawed when drivers aren’t complaining and I hope we see just as much of it after tonight’s Cup Series race.

I’ll write a more in-depth look at the championship contenders’ day later in the week. It’s a quick turnaround to tonight’s Cup Series race and I need to get a race thread up before green flag.

You’ll find the complete finishing order and some videos after the jump. The Sprint Cup race thread will post at 6 p.m. EST with the race set to go green at 7:30 p.m.

Race Results

NASCAR Nationwide Series Race Number 23
Unofficial Race Results for the 31St Annual Food City 250 - Friday, August 24, 2012
Bristol Motor Speedway - Bristol, TN - .533 Mile Paved
Total Race Length - 250 Laps - 133.25 Miles - Purse: $1,226,983

Fin	Str	Car	Driver	Team	Laps	Pts	Bns	Driver Rating	Winnings	Status	Tms	Laps
1	2	18	Joey Logano(i)	Dollar General Toyota	250	0		135.2	$43,675	Running	3	81
2	5	6	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	NOS Ford	250	43	1	130.4	$48,218	Running	2	60
3	10	54	Kyle Busch(i)	Monster Energy Toyota	250	0		111.5	$26,625	Running
4	4	3	Austin Dillon #	American Ethanol Chevrolet	250	40		103.4	$32,093	Running
5	7	2	Elliott Sadler	OneMain Financial Chevrolet	250	40	1	117.0	$27,718	Running	1	11
6	19	88	Cole Whitt #	SPY Optic Chevrolet	250	38		95.5	$29,018	Running
7	12	36	Ryan Blaney	Seal Wrap Chevrolet	250	37		94.7	$18,710	Running
8	18	43	Michael Annett	Pilot/Flying J Ford	250	36		89.9	$25,038	Running
9	34	7	Danica Patrick	GoDaddy.com Chevrolet	250	35		84.1	$24,818	Running
10	9	12	Sam Hornish Jr.	Detroit Genuine Parts Dodge	250	34		94.9	$25,418	Running
11	16	87	Joe Nemechek	AM/FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves Toyota	250	33		79.9	$24,643	Running
12	23	19	Tayler Malsam	G-Oil/Noah's Light Foundation Toyota	250	32		77.0	$24,218	Running
13	14	44	Mike Bliss	Bandit Chippers Toyota	250	31		83.0	$24,118	Running
14	15	38	Kasey Kahne(i)	Great Clips Chevrolet	250	0		102.5	$17,585	Running
15	13	33	Kevin Harvick(i)	Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet	250	0		120.8	$20,915	Running	1	98
16	1	60	Trevor Bayne	Yourracecar.com Ford	250	28		97.7	$20,905	Running
17	33	01	Mike Wallace	Tradebank Chevrolet	247	27		70.2	$23,928	Running
18	26	81	Jason Bowles #	American Majority Dodge	247	26		66.6	$23,883	Running
19	27	39	Josh Richards	Joy Global Ford	247	25		63.7	$23,848	Running
20	30	86	Kevin Lepage	Qello Ford	247	24		66.9	$18,015	Running
21	11	30	Nelson Piquet Jr(i)	Autotrac/Qualcomm Chevrolet	246	0		81.8	$23,743	Running
22	38	24	Benny Gordon	Big Timber/Horizon Entertainment Toyota	246	22		61.8	$23,698	Running
23	20	99	John Wes Townley(i)	Zaxby's Toyota	246	0		76.3	$23,638	Running
24	42	23	Robert Richardson Jr.	North Texas Pipe Chevrolet	246	20		46.4	$23,603	Running
25	28	15	Timmy Hill	Lilly Trucking Chevrolet	245	19		49.8	$17,350	Running
26	41	4	Brad Teague	SCAG Commercial Mowers Chevrolet	245	18		40.5	$23,678	Running
27	39	14	Eric McClure	Hefty/Reynolds Wrap Toyota	244	17		47.2	$23,418	Running
28	36	41	Fain Skinner	Carport Empire Ford	244	16		51.0	$23,348	Running
29	29	70	Johanna Long #	Foretravel Chevrolet	244	15		43.6	$23,313	Running
30	6	31	Justin Allgaier	Brandt Chevrolet	242	14		45.5	$23,568	Running
31	32	52	Joey Gase #	Jimco Windows Chevrolet	239	13		44.0	$16,760	Running
32	8	22	Brad Keselowski(i)	Discount Tire Dodge	226	0		49.2	$16,690	Running
33	21	51	Jeremy Clements	stjude.org Chevrolet	213	11		40.6	$23,138	Running
34	3	11	Brian Scott	Dollar General Toyota	198	10		79.0	$23,118	Clutch
35	22	40	Erik Darnell	The Motorsports Group Chevrolet	173	9		66.6	$23,103	Electrical
36	40	74	Rick Crawford(i)	Koma Unwind Chevrolet	55	0		44.0	$16,615	Overheating
37	43	71	Carl Long	Lilly Trucking Chevrolet	27	7		40.1	$16,595	Oil Pressure
38	25	75	Scott Riggs(i)	Lilly Trucking Chevrolet	20	0		35.7	$16,556	Electrical
39	37	50	David Starr(i)	Make Motorsports Chevrolet	19	0		37.1	$16,455	Engine
40	24	42	Josh Wise(i)	Curtis Key Plumbing Chevrolet	14	0		37.4	$16,430	Electrical
41	35	08	Tim Andrews	Randy Hill Racing Ford	11	3		33.9	$16,405	Brakes
42	17	10	Jeff Green	TriStar Motorsports Toyota	6	2		31.4	$16,375	Vibration
43	31	46	Chase Miller	The Motorsports Group Chevrolet	2	1		30.3	$16,330	Ignition

Race Comments: Before an estimated attendance of 85,000, Joey Logano won the Food City 250, his 15th NASCAR Nationwide Series victory. Prior to the green flag, the following cars dropped to the rear of the field for the reasons indicated: #87 (missed drivers meeting).
Failed to Qualify: (3) 89 Morgan Shepherd, 47 Stephen Leicht(i), 00 Blake Koch.
Time of Race: 01 Hrs, 44 Mins, 26 Secs. Average Speed: 76.556 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.503 Seconds
Caution Flags: 9 for 59 laps: Laps: 6-10 (#31, 3 accident Turn 3 [None]); 27-31 (#22, 4 accident Turn 2 [23]); 34-39 (Debris Backstretch [4]); 46-53 (#81, 01 accident Frontstretch [31]); 63-68 (#11, 54 accident Backstretch [24]); 115-121 (#41 spin Turn 2 [86]); 173-180 (#24 accident Turn 4 [19]); 227-235 (#99 accident Turn 2 [19]); 244-248 (#3, 60, 38 accident Turns 1 & 2 [33]).
Lead Changes: 7 among 4 drivers: 0; J. Logano(i) 1-35; E. Sadler 36-46; R. Stenhouse Jr. 47-105; J. Logano(i) 106-116; R. Stenhouse Jr. 117; K. Harvick(i) 118-215; J. Logano(i) 216-250.
Top 10 Driver Points: (1) E. Sadler 864;(2) R. Stenhouse Jr. 845;(3) S. Hornish Jr. 836;(4) A. Dillon # 829;(5) J. Allgaier 770;(6) M. Annett 726;(7) C. Whitt # 671;(8) M. Bliss 640;(9) B. Scott 550;(10) D. Patrick 539.
3M Lap Leader : Kevin Harvick, #33 98 Laps Coors Light Pole Award : Trevor Bayne, #60 121.19 mph
Featherlite Most Improved Driver : Cole Whitt, #88 27 Places Mahle Clevite Engine Builder of the Race : Joe Gibbs Racing Engines - Mark Cronquist, #18
Mobil 1 Oil Driver of the Race : Austin Dillon, #3 Sunoco Rookie of the Race : Austin Dillon, #3
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Next Race: Sep. 1, 2012 - Atlanta Motor Speedway
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