NASCAR: Lights-to-flag Xfinity win for Logan

Joey Logano

Joey Logano ran away with the win in Saturday’s Drive to Stop Diabetes 300 Xfinity Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, leading wire to wire for his second series victory of the season.

Logano started on the outside pole and powered past pole sitter Erik Jones on the opening lap and held the lead for the entire 300 lap distance, beating out rookie Daniel Suarez by just over a second to become the first driver to lead every lap in an Xfinity Series race since Kyle Busch led all 250 laps at Richmond last September.

Chris Buescher was third, followed by Jones and Ty Dillon.

Logano’s victory on Saturday gives him his second straight victory and his thirds consecutive top-two finish in his three starts driving the no. 22 Ford Mustang for Team Penske.

“That’s amazing. I’ve never led every single lap in a race before," said Logano. “You’re waiting for something to go wrong. Such a fast car and with late cautions and all that stuff and you’re like, ‘Alright, where am I gonna blow this thing?’ Because those are the ones that you’re just nervous throughout the whole race, but what a fast car. It was a perfect day."

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Logano grabbed the lead on the opening lap as he ducked under Jones going into turns one and two and was out in front by the time they got back to the start-finish line.

It would turn out to be the only pass for the lead.

Logano faced some pretty stout challenges early in the race from Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, but both would fall out of contention as Hamlin was sidelined with a broken rear-end gear on lap 117 and Harvick was nailed with a speeding penalty on out road on lap 174.

Instead, Logano now found himself being chased by a trio of young guns, with Jones, Suarez and Buescher staying close in the top five.

Their last chance to catch Logano came when the final caution waved with 22 to go, with Suarez lining up on Logano’s inside for the restart.

Once under green, Logano pulled away as Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Suarez and Jones battled for second with Buescher waiting in the wings in third. With 11 laps to go, Suarez was finally able to swing around Jones on the outside with Buescher following in second, but by then Logano was out of reach.

Suarez’s runner-up finish was his career-best in just the ninth series start for the 23-year-old rookie from Monterrey, Mexico.

“I just can't believe it. I can't explain to you in words right now what I'm feeling in Spanish or English. This is unbelievable, this feeling," said Suarez. “We work hard and sometimes it's hard like last weekend in Texas – we were strong and hit the wall and finished 18th. Today we were fast all day long and we ended up in the second spot so that's great."

Buescher picked up his fourth top-five finish in seven races so far this season and his career-best finish at Bristol driving the no. 60 Ford Mustang for Roush-Fenway Racing.

“That was a lot of fun. That was the best we’ve run at Bristol since I’ve been doing this the last four or five attempts here, so it was a good day for us," said Buescher. “We just needed a little bit more. It was so hard to pass. That high side, I think you see it, you get up there and there’s much you can do on the bottom. We were kind of stuck there at the end. I felt like we could have tried to run with the 22, but I see that he led every lap here today, so it sounds like he was a pretty dominant force."

Buescher’s third-place finish moved him into tie atop the Xfinity Series point standings with Ty Dillon, with defending series champion Chase Elliott just 12 points back