Logano defends race title at Kentucky – NASCAR Nationwide Series News at Automotive.com
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Logano defends race title at Kentucky

Logano defends race title at Kentucky

Logano defends race title at Kentucky

Sparta, KY (Sports Network) - Joey Logano is two-for-two in Nationwide Series competition at Kentucky Speedway.

Logano passed the dominant car of Kyle Busch with 10 laps to go, and then held off his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate by 1.625 seconds for his second straight victory in the Meijer 300 at Kentucky. Last year, Logano won at the 1.5-mile track in just his third start, becoming the youngest driver to win a series race at age 18 years, 21 days.

"This place just fits me, I just like it," Logano said. "We're fast every time we come around here."

Logano recorded his second victory of the season and the third of his Nationwide career.

After Sprint Cup Series practice and a second-place finish in the 200-mile Camping World Truck Series race at Michigan, Busch came to Kentucky and qualified second without any practice time in his car there. Logano took the pole.

Busch ran in front for 162 of 200 laps to increase his streak of leading the most laps in a Nationwide race to seven.

"It always happens that way, we always lose at the end," a disgusted Busch said. "It's another one-two finish (for Gibbs). Joey is just better than we are at these places. Congratulations to him, he learned from Mark Martin to save his stuff and kind of snooker people into not adjusting on their race cars."

Earlier this year, Logano passed Busch with 10 laps remaining to win the 300- mile race at Nashville.

"The last two races that I've won have been a one-two like that," Logano added.

Logano overcame a penalty for entering pit road too fast just before the halfway point. NASCAR handed out pit-road speeding penalties to more than half of the 43-driver field throughout the race.

Many drivers adamantly spoke out on NASCAR's crack down, particularly Carl Edwards after he was caught twice for speeding.

"The fact is, like it or not, NASCAR messed up the final pit road exit length, so they were catching all of these people speeding," Edwards said. "I got caught once, and I came in (for pass-thru penalty) and went slower and got caught again, so they just messed it up."

Edwards dealt with an ill-handling car before finishing three laps behind in 20th.

Brad Keselowski finished third, while Brendan Gaughan recovered from a late- race spin on old tires to come home fourth.

Justin Allgaier completed the top-five.

Jason Leffler, Michael Annett, Burney Lamar, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kelly Bires finished sixth through 10th, respectively.

Busch widened his lead to 137 points over Edwards.