Joey Logano made it two consecutive Chase for the Sprint Cup wins for Team Penske, taking the honors Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Like teammate Brad Keselowski a week ago at Chicagoland Speedway, Logano earned an automatic berth in Round 2 of NASCAR’s playoffs.
Joey Logano wins the 2014 Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway
A tumultuous race saw Joey Logano prevail and win Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Will Schneekloth
What happened?
In a hairy race where trouble befell myriad Chase drivers, Joey Logano used fresh tires and numerous good restarts to get the better of Kevin Harvick and Keselowski late.
On a restart with 27 laps remaining, Logano powered by both Harvick and Keselowski to take a lead he would never concede. Two additional restarts made it interesting, but Logano held on to win a career-high fourth victory of 2014.
Rookie Kyle Larson finished second followed by Harvick in third, Jamie McMurray fourth and Jimmie Johnson fifth. Rounding out the top 10 were Aric Almirola, Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brian Vickers.
Trouble finds Chasers
While Logano and Harvick enjoyed relatively quiet days, eight Chase drivers found themselves hampered by various problems. Altogether, Sunday’s race was slowed by 15 cautions for a total of 63 laps.
In chronological order the the problems encountered by those competing for the championship:
- Initially plagued by a refueling issue which cost him several laps to the field after taking the lead, Denny Hamlin became collected in a multi-car crash on Lap 180. Forced to the garage for extensive repairs, he finished 37th.
- A loose right front wheel forced Earnhardt to make an unscheduled pit stop. Earnhardt dropped a lap to the field, but later got the free pass and finished ninth.
- A chain-reaction crash culminated with Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne making contact and sustaining significant damage. Busch would rally to finish eighth, while Kahne placed 23rd.
- Keselowski’s up-and-down day included dominating early, then dropping down the running order following a decision to take four tires over two. But as he made a slow charge to the front, Keselowski overdrove and spun into the Turn 1 wall. With minimal damage, however, last week’s winner would find himself back out front in a short amount of time. On older tires he slid to seventh at the checkered flag.
- Running 15th, Kurt Busch cut a right front tire and slammed the Turn 3. He finished 36th.
- Joe Gibbs Racing’s third driver, Matt Kenseth, became collected with Paul Menard with 32 laps remaining. Kenseth fell to 26th, a lap down.
- Jeff Gordon blew a tire and pounded the wall nine laps from the finish. At the time he was running fifth, but finished 26th.
Chase cutoff
Because of the eventfulness that many Chasers experienced Sunday, the cutoff to avoid playoff elimination has tightened considerably entering next week’s Round 1 finale at Dover International Speedway.
As it stands, Hamlin (-6 points), Greg Biffle (-6), Kurt Busch (-8) and Almirola (-10) all would fail to advance. Yet Carl Edwards (+8 points), Kenseth (+8), AJ Allmendinger (+7), Ryan Newman (+6) and Kahne (+6) are in danger of not advancing if they struggle at Dover and fail to finish 12th or better in points.
Sylvania 300 finishing order
| Finish | Start | Driver | Laps |
| 1 | 7 | Joey Logano | 303 |
| 2 | 10 | Kyle Larson | 303 |
| 3 | 3 | Kevin Harvick | 303 |
| 4 | 2 | Jamie McMurray | 303 |
| 5 | 6 | Jimmie Johnson | 303 |
| 6 | 21 | Aric Almirola | 303 |
| 7 | 1 | Brad Keselowski | 303 |
| 8 | 5 | Kyle Busch | 303 |
| 9 | 11 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 303 |
| 10 | 12 | Brian Vickers | 303 |
| 11 | 22 | Austin Dillon | 303 |
| 12 | 32 | Martin Truex Jr. | 303 |
| 13 | 27 | AJ Allmendinger | 303 |
| 14 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | 303 |
| 15 | 23 | Paul Menard | 303 |
| 16 | 26 | Greg Biffle | 303 |
| 17 | 8 | Carl Edwards | 303 |
| 18 | 9 | Ryan Newman | 303 |
| 19 | 18 | Danica Patrick | 303 |
| 20 | 24 | Justin Allgaier | 303 |
| 21 | 16 | Matt Kenseth | 303 |
| 22 | 25 | Casey Mears | 303 |
| 23 | 17 | Kasey Kahne | 303 |
| 24 | 20 | Marcos Ambrose | 303 |
| 25 | 30 | Landon Cassill | 303 |
| 26 | 13 | Jeff Gordon | 303 |
| 27 | 34 | David Gilliland | 301 |
| 28 | 35 | Alex Bowman | 301 |
| 29 | 38 | Michael Annett | 301 |
| 30 | 28 | Tony Stewart | 301 |
| 31 | 37 | Reed Sorenson | 300 |
| 32 | 40 | Travis Kvapil | 300 |
| 33 | 39 | Josh Wise | 297 |
| 34 | 42 | Mike Wallace | 296 |
| 35 | 43 | Timmy Hill | 295 |
| 36 | 15 | Kurt Busch | 268 |
| 37 | 4 | Denny Hamlin | 265 |
| 38 | 31 | Cole Whitt | 264 |
| 39 | 19 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 263 |
| 40 | 36 | David Stremme | 228 |
| 41 | 41 | Corey Lajoie | 201 |
| 42 | 29 | David Ragan | 177 |
| 43 | 33 | Clay Rogers | 45 |
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