Joey Logano secures berth in second Chase round with New Hampshire win

Sep 21, 2014; Loudon, NH, USA; NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Joey Logano is presented with the race winner

Joey Logano joined Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski as the two drivers with their spots claimed for the second three-race round of the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup with his win Sunday in the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. The win is Logano’s fourth of the season and came at what he considers his home track. Logano’s victory also snapped a streak of 13 different race winners in the last 13 Cup races at NHMS.

"“Coming up to the Northeast, where I’m from — I watched my first NASCAR race here when I was five,” Logano said. “This is almost like a Daytona win for me.”"

Logano took the lead for the final time with 26 laps remaining in the race’s scheduled 300-lap distance, getting by Kevin Harvick on one of several late-race restarts. Larson got by Harvick on a green-white-checker restart to claim runner-up honors, relegating Harvick to third at the finish.

"“It was a really good race for us,” Larson said. “Our Target Chevy wasn’t even a top-15 car the first 100 laps.”"

While the yellow flag waved only twice in the first 170 laps of the race, with one of those being a NASCAR-planned competition caution because of rain during the overnight hourse, the yellow flag came out often in the final 130 laps. In all, there were 15 cautions, with Chase contenders being involved in many of the caution-causing incidents.

Brad Keselowski started the race on the pole, and Denny Hamlin got up to second at the green flag. Pit strategy mired Keselowski back in the field during a competition caution on lap 37 when he took four tires while the other front-runners took two. Hamlin, meanwhile, restarted with the lead. But Hamlin’s efforts went sour when he suffered a fuel pick-up issue and then later got caught up in a wreck on lap 181.

"“We got in a crash and that ultimately set us back the extended amount of distance,” Hamlin said. “Still, we were five laps down (before the wreck, because of the fuel issue).”"

Harvick took his first lead on lap 71 and ran up front until he was beaten off pit road by Logano during a lap 171 caution. Logano maintained his lead through several cautions, while Keselowski worked his way back toward the front, despite a spin on lap 195.

Keselowski retook the lead for the first time since lap 37 when he got out front on a restart that followed a lap 223 yellow flag.

Harvick moved back to the front fro the lead on a restart with just under 40 laps to go, but lost that lead to Logano on the restart that followed the 13th yellow flag of the race. In all, Harvick led a race-high 104 laps, while Keselowski and Logano each led more than 70.

"“Restarts are crazy,” Harvick said. “The gap in the restart zone was a little wider than it was supposed to be, but that’s good, hard racing.”"

Jamie McMurray finished fourth, and Jimmie Johnson was fifth. Finishing sixth through 10th were Aric Almirola, Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

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