Auto racing: Joey Logano holds off Brad Keselowski for Vegas victory
LAS VEGAS — Joey Logano held off teammate Brad Keselowski on Sunday to win the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Logano drove his Team Penske Ford to his 22nd career victory and his first of the season, narrowly answering Keselowski’s closing-lap passing strive down the stretch. Logano had never received a Cup race in Vegas in 11 tries throughout his first 10 complete-time seasons, even though he gained an Xfinity Series race on the track in 2017.
The first race beneath NASCAR’s complete new rules bundle produced a warning-unfastened occasion that also had a few thrilling movements up front, including multiple wild restarts after the two-segment breaks.
“What a top-notch race,” Logano said. “Brad and I had been so lightly matched, and also you simply can’t turn away (underneath the brand new regulations). My coronary heart continues to be walking.”
Keselowski drove up from 19th to take the lead with 27 laps left, but his hopes for again-to-returned victories had been dashed while Logano surpassed him at the same time as getting held up using lapped traffic.
“I’d like to have one greater lap,” Keselowski stated. “It turned into a boss battle, and we have been both combating truly tough at the pinnacle. It appeared like it came right down to what the lapped vehicles were going to do.”
Kyle Busch finished 0.33, unable to recover from a mid-race rushing penalty in the place of birth motive force’s quest for the third 3-race weekend sweep in NASCAR history.
“If we didn’t have the speeding penalty on pit avenue, we’d have won this race,” Busch stated. “The motive force threw it away.” Busch received the Trucks race Friday and the Xfinity occasion Saturday, giving him 197 victories in all three series. He has won the best one Cup race in Vegas, and he lamented his mistake after dashing down pit street.
Pole-sitter Kevin Harvick was fourth, and Kurt Busch completed 5th for the Las Vegas local’s first top-5 finish at his domestic song seeing that 2005. Fords took five of the top seven spots.
NASCAR debuted the entirety of its new rules package designed to foster tighter racing and more great passing. Drivers expected to be in vast packs of racers with masses of lead modifications due to the reduced speeds and increased downforce — but the changes didn’t cause any big wrecks.
