Sprint Cup Series – Lenox Industrial Tools 301 (273)

Meet the youngest winner in Sprint Cup Series history, Joey Logano. It was the first cup win in 20 races for the driver of the #20.

After leading the most laps and missing out on the win in Saturday’s Nationwide Series race, Logano was out front for 10 laps when rain forced NASCAR to call the race on lap 273 of 301.

“Obviously, it’s not the way you want to win your first race, in the rain,” Logano said. “But 20 years down the road when you look in the record books, no one will know the difference.”

(Photo Credit: Drew Hallowell/Getty Images for NASCAR)

“You take ‘em any way you can get ‘em, kid,” was his mentor and crew chief, Greg Zipadelli’s words to his driver.

The day wasn’t without a struggle. Early on, a blown tire forced Logano to pit and go a lap down. He made it back on the lead lap in time to play a bit of rain strategy behind Ryan Newman. With rain on the radar close by, Newman took a gamble on fuel mileage and didn’t pit with the leaders. He stayed out on the track and was able to lead 17 laps before running out of gas. Logano was running 2nd by that time.

“Today, this is cool,” Logano said in a post-race press conference. “This is where I watched my first Cup race and where I ran my first Cup race and where I won my first Cup race, so I could not have picked a better place.  This is kind of like a home turf place for me, a lot of family and friends here.”

As Logano just turned 19 on May 24th, the question has been asked before if it was too soon to put him in a cup car this soon in his career? Team owner Joe Gibbs replied, “At the time we thought we were going to test a bunch and that got taken away from us, so then you’re putting Joey out there with the best in the world, this is the best people in the world doing this, and he’s having to compete at places he’s never seen really. I thought last week, and really for about the last seven weeks, we have come back from some real tough things.  Last week at Sonoma, to go out in a road race, not being there in a COT car, qualified 12th, battled all day up front; and then getting a late wreck, went all the way to the back and battled all the way back to 19th.  That, to me, in sports, means a lot. Today, a lot of bad things happened, but I think what Zippy has done a great job of is guiding the team.  Nobody on that group gets down.  I mentioned the fact that they are used to running for a championship.  This year they are working with Joey, a real young guy; they have been, I think, just great.  I take great pride in that, and that’s really been going on for about the last eight races.”

Jimmie Johnson led a race-high 93 laps. Throughout much of the race, all 4 full-time Hendrick drivers were running solidly inside the top-10. Jeff Gordon led 6 times for 64 laps and scored a runner up finish.

Kurt Busch finished 3rd followed by David Reutimann, Tony Stewart, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Sam Hornish Jr, Jimmie Johnson and last week’s race winner, Kasey Kahne – rounding out the top-10.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here.

There were 11 cautions for 47 laps including an eight car crash on lap 175 which red-flagged the race for 12 minutes and 8 seconds. On a restart, Martin Truex Jr slowed to avoid hitting Dale Earnhradt Jr which set up the accordion effect. Kyle Busch ran into the back of Truex which also involved David Reutimann, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton, Casey Mears, David Ragan and Brian Vickers. Kyle was able to stay out on the track to which Truex motioned like he was going to throw his helmet at the #18 when Kyle passed by.

“Someone spun the tires and our lane didn’t go,” Truex said soon after the accident. “Kyle lost his head like he usually does when something bad happens.” Martin Truex Jr did not finish and placed 37th.

Brian Vickers also couldn’t finish. “While I was in the care center, I saw the replay and it looked like the 18 was just completely impatient – very normal,” Vickers explained. “Just hooked the 1in the right rear and turned him in front of the field. If you wreck somebody on the straightway, you kind of should be black-flagged for it.” Vickers finished 35th.

“Unfortunately, I have to apologize to all those guys on the restart,” Kyle said after finishing 7th. “I got into Martin and I hate it for him and Jeff Burton and those guys. It was just hard racing on a restart.”

There were 21 lead changes among 14 drivers:

T. Stewart 0; J. Gordon 1-6; Kurt Busch 7-19; J. Gordon 20-31; Kurt Busch 32-46; J. Gordon 47; E. Sadler 48; J. Gordon 49; J. Johnson 50-122; J. Gordon 123; J. Montoya 124-129; D. Hamlin 130; R. Sorenson 131; R. Gordon 132; J. Johnson 133-152; J. Gordon 153-195; T. Stewart 196-235; M. Martin 236; G. Biffle 237; B. Labonte 238-246; R. Newman 247-263; J. Logano 264-273.