After seven months of going without a win, Joey Logano returned to the victory circle with a dominant performance in the backyard of the American automotive industry.
The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford led 139 of the 200 laps on his way to winning the FireKeepers Casino 400.
“What a great race car,” Logano said. “To win here in Roger’s backyard and Ford’s back yard, this is always a big win for us here. We appreciate the great car. What a crazy race with the low downforce and with more cautions and more opportunity to screw up pretty much. What a fun race, racing with Chase (Elliott) and Kyle Larson. It is fun to see the young guys up there racing. I am not alone up there as a young guy anymore. I have guys up there younger than me racing for a win.”
It’s his 15th career victory in 271 starts in the Sprint Cup Series, second victory and 10th top 10 in 16 starts at Michigan International Speedway and his first victory and ninth top 10 of the 2016 season.
Logano’s win is the 100th for Roush-Yates Engines in the Sprint Cup Series.
Chase Elliott led 35 laps on his way to a runner-up finish in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
“I just did something dumb,” Elliott said talking about his final restart. “You can’t do dumb stuff and win these races. Completely my fault. The guys gave me a great car today. This whole NAPA group has been working so hard these past few weeks and that one was on me. Like I said, you can’t do dumb stuff to win these things and I did today.”
It’s his 11th top-10 finish of the season and his first in two starts at Michigan.
Kyle Larson led one lap as he rounded out the podium in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Asked what he could’ve done differently, he said he wasn’t “sure there was anything I could have done there. It was pretty tight to fire off for two or three laps; sometimes for a full run. My restarts were pretty good. You’ve got to have a good guy behind you if you get a good push. I just had good restarts and kept some track position, it seemed like. It might have been hard to pass. So, just staying out front the whole time was a big key. The Target Chevy was really fast. I think we had a third or fourth-place car. So, thanks to all these guys for working hard at the shop on not having much time to figure out this aero package and bring a nice piece here. I wish we could have gotten a win. But, we’ll keep fighting and hopefully we can run up front more often.”
“So, just staying out front the whole time was a big key. The Target Chevy was really fast. I think we had a third or fourth-place car. So, thanks to all these guys for working hard at the shop on not having much time to figure out this aero package and bring a nice piece here. I wish we could have gotten a win. But, we’ll keep fighting and hopefully we can run up front more often.”
It’s his second top 10 finish in six starts at Michigan. His car, however, failed post-race inspection. Any penalties from this will be announced on Wednesday.
Brad Keselowski, who ran out of gas in the first quarter of the race while leading, led 10 laps on his way to a fourth-place finish in his No. 2 Penske Ford.
“I am not sure the new package was everything we wanted it to be but it is a step in the right direction as far as putting the drivers in control of the racing but not in reducing the aero stuff we wanted,” Keselowski said. “I guess we have to think about it a little.”
Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.
Carl Edwards finished sixth in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
“Man, I was hoping for a caution there at the end and we got it,” Edwards said. “Then I had a pretty ugly restart. It’s tough out there today and the restarts were really tough. Once the cars got strung out a little bit, we were a little bit free in spots, but overall the guys did a great job. We rallied back from terrible track position and I was really nervous in the middle of the race. I didn’t think we were going to be able to finish in the top-15 so sixth place is a good day.”
Tony Stewart finished seventh in his No. 14 SHR Chevrolet followed by Austin Dillon who finished eighth in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Jamie McMurray finished ninth in his No. 1 CGR Chevrolet and Kurt Busch rounded out the top 10 in his No. 41 SHR Chevrolet.
Ryan Newman, who led one lap, finished 11th. Martin Truex Jr., who led 10 laps and spun out early in the race bringing out the first caution, finished 12th. Jimmie Johnson led four laps and finished 16th. Paul Menard, who led one lap, finished 18th.
Denny Hamlin wrecked out of the race with 12 laps remaining and finished 33rd. Matt DiBenedetto exited the race with 15 laps to go and was scored 34th as a DNF. Brian Scott wrecked out of the race with less than 50 laps remaining and finished 36th. Jeffrey Earnhardt wrecked out of the race just past halfway and finished 37th. AJ Allmendinger and Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecked out of the race on lap 61 and finished 38th and 39th. Kyle Busch had an engine let go on lap 51 and finished 40th.
Twenty-eight cars finished on the lead lap while 33 finished the race.
The race lasted two hours, 58 minutes and 47 seconds at an average speed of 134.241 mph. There were 14 lead changes among eight different drivers and nine cautions for 46 laps.
Harvick leaves Michigan with a 30-point lead over Kurt Busch.
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