Logano takes Darlington pole

John Harrelson / Motorsport Images
57 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Kelly Crandall | May 7, 2022 1:14 PM ET

Joey Logano grabbed pole for the first time at Darlington Raceway with a lap of 170.720mph (28.805s) — his first pole of the season and 23rd of his NASCAR Cup Series career.

Kyle Larson will join Logano on the front row. Larson clocked in at 170.236mph.

Christopher Bell starts third at 169.818mph, Martin Truex Jr. fourth at 169.292mph, and Kyle Busch starts fifth after a lap of 169.216mph.

Truex is the defending Darlington race winner.

Kurt Busch qualified sixth at 169.123mph, Ryan Blaney was seventh at 168.955mph, Ross Chastain eighth at 168.839mph, William Byron ninth at 168.636mph, and Tyler Reddick completing the top 10 at 168.451mph.

More NASCAR!

2022 feels like "being the coyote that gets the anvil dropped on its head" - Hamlin

Wallace positive in spite of finishes not reflecting work put in

Cindric fastest in Cup practice while Elliott, Harvick hit woes

After being fastest in practice, Austin Cindric didn’t make it to the final round of qualifying. Cindric was 19th fastest at 167.373mph.

Denny Hamlin qualified 22nd and then reported something felt wrong with his Toyota. Hamlin said there was a grinding sound and then it lost power. The No. 11 team is diagnosing the issue.

Three drivers did not attempt a qualifying lap. Kevin Harvick was not permitted to after having to go to the garage in practice to replace the diffuser on his Ford Mustang. Chase Elliott did not get on track as his team is preparing the backup car after his practice crash. BJ McLeod was the only other driver who did not make it on track.

UP NEXT: The Goodyear 400 at 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday.

 

Allgaier victorious in incident-filled Darlington Xfinity race

Matt Thacker / Motorsport Images
2.1k shares
share
tweet
emailBy Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service | May 7, 2022 4:43 PM ET

The numbers tell the story of Justin Allgaier’s impressive victory in Saturday’s Mahindra ROXOR 200 at Darlington Raceway.

First and foremost, in defending the NASCAR Xfinity Series victory he claimed last spring at the Lady in Black, Allgaier broke a 34-race drought dating to that 2021 win.

For the second straight race, JR Motorsports posted a one-two result, with Noah Gragson trailing Allgaier to the finish line by 0.259s in a two-lap dash to the end of regulation.

JRM drivers now have won three straight races in the series and three straight at Darlington, with Gragson having triumphed at the 1.366-mile track last fall.

Beyond the numbers, though, the key element on Saturday was the flawless execution of Allgaier’s pit crew. After he finished third behind Gragson and Ty Gibbs in Stage 2, the crew got the No. 7 Chevrolet out first during a lap 92 pit stop.

More NASCAR!

Logano unapologetic about bumping way to take first Darlington win

Byron says Logano made a "stupid" move in the final laps at Darlington

Logano does the bump and run to win at Darlington

On the two stops that followed, Allgaier was first off pit road among the drivers who came in for service. When nine cars stayed out under caution for Joe Graf Jr.’s crash on lap 136, Allgaier restarted 10th on lap 141 and advanced to second before Tyler Reddick slammed the outside wall on lap 142.

On the subsequent restart on lap 146 of 147, Allgaier quickly grabbed the lead form AJ Allmendinger, who had 16-lap older tires, and held the top spot to the finish, as Gragson pursued.

“This team right here—the pit stops today were killing it,” said Allgaier, who had finished a close second to teammate Josh Berry a week ago at Dover. “They were awesome. This Hellman’s Camaro was so fast. Just a testament to the No. 7 guys, but everybody at JR Motorsports—they’ve been working so hard. It’s showing with our finishes, not just our No. 7 team, but all of us.

“We’ve been doing this way too long, and you know how great it feels to get back to Victory Lane. And by the way, it was awesome racing my teammates. That was probably the coolest part — racing my teammates all day — so hats off to those guys.”

Gragson delivered his eighth top-five finish of the season, including victories at Phoenix and Talladega.

“A one-two finish for our company — that was great,” Gragson said. “We had great points today; two stage wins and a second place. I wanted that win. I was ripping the top. I went on a bike ride this morning with Justin Allgaier, right at sunrise. He said, ‘Man, I’m going to run the bottom,’ and I knew he was going to run the bottom.

“We ran at the fence all day. He got the win. Hopefully we’re selling T-shirts out on the concourse for ripping the top. I don’t know if anyone was higher than us, and there’s barely scrape on the right side.”

Riley Herbst ran third, extending his string of top-10 finishes to five. Friday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race winner, John Hunter Nemechek, came home fourth, followed by JRM’s Sam Mayer.

Landon Cassill, Brandon Jones, Allmendinger, Daniel Hemric and Austin Hill completed the top 10. Allmendinger has finished in the top 10 in all 11 Xfinity Series races this season.

 

Logano unapologetic about bumping way to take first Darlington win

The reason people race is to win instead of pass out participation trophys.
I'm American and Americans don't apologize for winning like the damn liberals want you to.

You hit me and I'm hitting you back.

Logano also said he didn’t care what Byron called him and that he’s been called worse.

Matt Thacker/Motorsport Images
1.5k shares
share
tweet
emailBy Kelly Crandall | May 8, 2022 8:56 PM ET

William Byron didn’t meant to run Joey Logano into the wall while they raced for the lead at Darlington Raceway, Logano felt…but he insists Byron did, and that’s why Logano’s winning move was a bump out of the way.

“We’re equal,” Logano said. “You put me in the wall first. At that point, it’s game on.”

Logano hit Byron in the bumper entering Turn 3 with two laps to go in the Goodyear 400. The contact shot Byron to the wall and yielded a 13th-place finish, his car damaged from more contact with the wall before getting to the checkered flag. Logano won his first race at “The Lady in Black.”

Logano allowed that Byron would be right to be upset “if I punted him out of the way for no reason to win the race without him doing something to me in the past at any point… He never has in the past, and it’s not like he meant to fence me,” Logano said. “I don’t think he meant to run me in the wall. The [fact is] — he did. It’s racing and it kind of took the win out of my hands, so at that point you’re going to have to do what you have to do to get the lead back in the same manner. He got it, so that’s kind of how that works.”

A restart on lap 268 started it all. Logano was the race leader and chose the outside lane with Byron going to the inside. The two raced hard side-by-side off Turn 2 with Byron prevailing.

“To me, I probably wouldn’t have gone straight to the bump and run if it wasn’t for how he got the lead,” said Logano. “He came off Turn 2 and drove me right into the wall. At that point I’m lucky my car is not broken and I’m a very angry driver. I think anyone in the field would probably agree, if someone is going to be willing to do that to you, the gloves are off at that point.

More NASCAR!

Darlington result feels like a "career-high" for Justin Haley

Darlington "a good rebound" for Reddick

Byron says Logano made a "stupid" move in the final laps at Darlington

“I knew, if I got back there, what I was going to do and what I had to do. So that was the way he wanted to race [and] I said, ‘Let’s go.’ If he passed me clean, it wouldn’t have looked like that. But that was the situation that was there in front of me.

“Fortunately, I was able to get back there and he obviously knew it was coming. He checked up into the corner pretty early but I did what I had to do. I had to win the race; it’s very important to win and [get] into the playoffs, obviously. All those things go into the equation of making the decision.”

Byron still felt he and Logano had barely touched.

“OK,” Logano laughed. “Maybe from his side. I felt the wall and his car all at the same time as I was sandwiched into the fence, so, OK. Cool.”

After taking the lead, Byron had initially gapped Logano by a healthy margin but it disappeared inside the final 10 laps. Logano said he was “grinding it out” to get back to the No. 24.

“I just went hard,” Logano said. “My car was pretty tight but you had an angry race car driver in there. There’s something to be said for an angry race car driver, I’m telling you. There’s a little bit more speed in the tank when you tick me off a little bit, and you’re able to go a little faster. The last five or six laps, I could see him get pretty tight and struggling through (Turns) 3 and 4 in particular, but also through (Turns) 1 and 2, and I thought I might have a shot at this thing. It was going to be close on the amount of laps and how quick I could catch him.”

The reason people race is to win instead of pass out participation trophys.
I'm American and Americans don't apologize for winning like the damn liberals want you to.
You hit me and I'm hitting you back.
Logano also said he didn’t care what Byron called him and that he’s been called worse.

 

Byron says Logano made a "stupid" move in the final laps at Darlington...just like I made the same move on him after the restart., but he's a chicken S*** MF'er and I'm not.

Gavin Baker / Motorsport Images
3.7k shares
share
tweet
emailBy Kelly Crandall | May 8, 2022 8:22 PM ET

William Byron described Joey Logano going into Turn 3 at Darlington Raceway 10mph faster and hitting him in the rear as “stupid” but said Logano “runs everybody over.”

Byron was knocked out of the race lead by Logano with two laps to go Sunday evening. The shot to the back of Byron’s bumper sent his Chevrolet into the wall. Logano won the race; Byron finished 13th.

“He didn’t even barely make the corner,” Byron said. “I don’t know why he goes in so hard and knocks the [expletive] out of you. Makes no sense.”

Byron took the lead from Logano when the Goodyear 400 restarted for the final time on lap 268. He did so on the inside lane — Logano having chosen the outside — and the two were side-by-side in close quarters coming off Turn 2.

According to Byron, perhaps Logano “got spooked.” He felt the two had barely touched. Yeah we barely touched and I sent him into the wall first , but not hard enough to disable his car.......darn it.

“We had a pretty clean restart,” he said. “Everybody on the bottom, all day, couldn’t get through that bump very good, so it was tight. No reason for him to say [it was] retaliation. That’s stupid. He does this stuff all the time.”

More NASCAR!

Darlington result feels like a "career-high" for Justin Haley

Darlington "a good rebound" for Reddick

Logano unapologetic about bumping way to take first Darlington win

Logano admitted in his finish line interview with Fox that the contact was not by coincidence. He felt Byron had put him in the wall first during their fight for the lead on the restart and that Byron would get something back.

“That’s how that works,” Logano said. Hit me and I'll hit you back.

After gapping Logano when taking the lead, Byron saw his advantage disappear over the final few laps. The Hendrick driver admitted he was trying to manage his right rear tire because they had been an issue around the worn-out racetrack all day.
Yeah it was the worn out race track. I'm completely innocent.

“And he just run us over,” Byron said.

During his Fox television interview, Byron called Logano an “idiot” and a “moron.” Asked if he’ll race Logano the same way, Byron said, “Yeah, he runs everybody over, so I don’t see what’s different, you know? I hit him first and then He does it to me
and didn’t let us finish. He's the bad guy. All I did was hit him first. He goes in there 10 miles an hour faster. Stupid.”

Byron’s crew chief Rudy Fugle wishes they had a shot to race Logano clean for one lap.

“He took a shot at the back of us and that’s what happened,” Fugle said. “So, we’ll move on.”

Neither Byron nor Fugle felt Logano tried to make it a fight to the finish.

“Would have been great if he would have drove it there on the bottom,” Fugle said. “I don’t think we were trying to block. I think we were trying to do our thing and [trying] to get a run off the top and go race him for the final lap. I think everybody wants to be raced first and then things happen.

Oh well… We’ll move forward and I'll kick his A** just like I did when I took the lead away on the restart and put him into the wall to start with.”

 

Logano does the bump and run to win at Darlington

John Harrelson / Motorsport Images
1.1k shares
share
tweet
emailBy Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service | May 8, 2022 8:00 PM ET

Executing a decisive bash-and-run on the next-to-last-lap of Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, Joey Logano wrested the lead from William Byron and ended a NASCAR Cup Series 40-race winless streak dating to March of 2021 at the Bristol Dirt Track.

After Logano gave Byron’s Chevrolet a jolt entering Turn 3 on the white-flag lap, Byron shot up the track into the outside wall and fell back to 13th at the finish.
What do you think of Joey Logano’s move to win at @TooToughToTame?

The #MotorMouths crew will discuss Monday at 6P ET on @peacockTV. pic.twitter.com/3mKhbtsqtP

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC)

Driving a No. 22 Ford sporting the throwback paint scheme of his first quarter-midget racer, Logano beat runner-up Tyler Reddick to the finish line by 0.77s to earn his first victory at Darlington and the 28th of his career.

Logano now has won at least one race in 11 consecutive Cup Series seasons.

“Yeah, you’re not going to put me in the wall and not get anything back,” Logano said, apparently referring to earlier contact from Byron’s car. “That’s how that works. Man, super proud of the Shell-Pennzoil team, getting a victory here in Darlington. You know what it’s like — I’ve never won here in a Cup race before.

“So proud of this race team. Great execution all day long. I’ll tell you what, the coolest thing is getting this car into victory lane. This is the car where it all started for me back in ’95 in a quarter midget. Really, honestly, all the young kids racing out there right now — this could be you.”

An incensed Byron clearly thought Logano crossed the line with his aggressive maneuver.

“We were really close off of (Turn) 2, and I think it spooked him and got him tight, and he was right against the wall, and I got the lead,” Byron said of a restart on lap 268. “He’s just an idiot. He does this stuff all the time. I’ve seen it with other guys.

“He drove in there 10 miles an hour too fast, and with these Next-Gen cars, he slammed me so hard it knocked the whole right side off the car, and no way to make the corner.

“Yeah, he’s just a moron. He can’t win a race, so he does it that way. I don’t know, we’ll… yeah, it was close racing on the restart. We were faster than him. Obviously, at the end the right rear (of Byron’s car) started to go away, and, yeah, he didn’t even make it a contest.”

Justin Haley ran third, followed by Kevin Harvick, who posted his 13th straight top-10 result at the “Lady in Black,” a track record. Chase Elliott started at the rear of the field in a backup car and finished fifth.

A massive wreck off Turn 2 on lap 261 of 293 took out more than a handful of front-running cars and set up the final restart. Martin Truex Jr., who had restarted on the inside of Row 2, lost momentum in the corner and slid back between the Chevrolet of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and the Ford of Kevin Harvick.

Truex’s Toyota made slight contact with Stenhouse’s Camaro in the outside — but enough to start Truex spinning sideways. The wreck collected the cars of Kurt Busch, Bubba Wallace, Cole Custer, Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Blaney and Elliott, which suffered damage ranging from minimal to terminal.

Ill fortune led to the demise of three of the strongest cars before the race reached the halfway point. On lap 114 second-place starter Kyle Larson brought his No. 5 Chevrolet to pit road and retired with engine failure.

Lap 167 brought the downfall of Kyle Busch, who had led 19 laps. The No. 6 Ford of Brad Keselowski pounded the outside wall in Turn 2 and collected the Toyota of Busch, eliminating both cars from the race.

Ross Chastain collected the second stage win of his career in Stage 2, but his elation was short-lived. Moments after the subsequent restart on lap 196, Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet spun to the inside of Hamlin’s Toyota near the exit of Turn 2 and nosed into the inside wall, ending his race.

“We were fighting the balance all day,” Chastain said. “We were racing with those guys for the lead. I just thought I could run the bottom there off of Turn 2 at the exit of the patch (of new asphalt). I just got loose on the transition and spun out.”

By the time the race ended, 13 of the 36 cars already were in the garage, equaling the number of DNFs last month at Talladega.

Logano’s victory in a Ford kept Chevrolet winless at Darlington since Harvick’s victory there in 2014.

 

Logano moves Byron out of way, powers to first win of 2022 at Darlington

By
Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service May 8, 2022 at 7:15 PMExecuting a decisive bash-and-run on the next-to-last-lap of Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, Joey Logano wrestled the lead from William Byron and ended a NASCAR Cup Series 40-race winless streak dating to March 2021 at Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt track.

After Logano gave Byron’s Chevrolet a jolt entering Turn 3 on the white-flag lap, Byron shot up the track into the outside wall and fell back to 13th at the finish.

RELATED: Official results | Byron fired up after late contact

Driving a No. 22 Ford sporting the throwback paint scheme of his first quarter-midget racer, Logano beat runner-up Tyler Reddick to the finish line by 0.775 seconds to earn his first victory at Darlington and the 28th of his career.

Logano now has won at least one race in 11 consecutive Cup Series seasons.

“Yeah, you’re not going to put me in the wall and not get anything back,” Logano said, apparently referring to earlier contact from Byron’s car. “That’s how that works. Man, super proud of the Shell-Pennzoil team, getting a victory here in Darlington. You know what it’s like — I’ve never won here in a Cup race before.

“So proud of this race team. Great execution all day long. I’ll tell you what, the coolest thing is getting this car into Victory Lane. This is the car where it all started for me back in ’95 in a quarter midget. Really, honestly, all the young kids racing out there right now — this could be you.”

An incensed Byron clearly thought Logano crossed the line with his aggressive maneuver.

“We were really close off of (Turn) 2, and I think it spooked him and got him tight, and he was right against the wall, and I got the lead,” Byron said of a restart on Lap 268. “He’s just an idiot. He does this stuff all the time. I’ve seen it with other guys.

“He drove in there 10 mph too fast, and with these Next-Gen cars, he slammed me so hard it knocked the whole right side off the car, and no way to make the corner.

“Yeah, he’s just a moron. He can’t win a race, so he does it that way. I don’t know, we’ll … yeah, it was close racing on the restart. We were faster than him. Obviously, at the end the right rear (of Byron’s car) started to go away, and, yeah, he didn’t even make it a contest.”

RELATED: Kyle Larson registers fourth DNF of 2022 | At-track photos

Justin Haley ran third, followed by Kevin Harvick, who posted his 13th straight top-10 result at the “Lady in Black” — a track record. Chase Elliott started at the rear of the field in a backup car and finished fifth.

A massive wreck off Turn 2 on Lap 260 of 293 took out more than a handful of front-running cars and set up the final restart. Martin Truex Jr., who had restarted on the inside of Row 2, lost momentum in the corner and slid back between the Chevrolet of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and the Ford of Harvick.

Truex’s Toyota made slight contact with Stenhouse’s Camaro on the outside — but enough to start Truex spinning sideways. The wreck collected the cars of Kurt Busch, black racist Bubba Wallace, Cole Custer, Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Blaney and Elliott, which suffered damage ranging from minimal to terminal.

Ill fortune led to the demise of three of the strongest cars before the race reached the halfway point. On Lap 112, second-place starter Kyle Larson brought his No. 5 Chevrolet to pit road and retired with engine failure when it looked like it was shotgunned with fried chicken grease all over everything.

Lap 167 brought the downfall of Kyle Busch, who had led 19 laps. The No. 6 Ford of Brad Keselowski pounded the outside wall in Turn 2 and collected the Toyota of Busch, eliminating both cars from the race.

RELATED: Kyle Busch collected by Brad Keselowski, wrecks out

Ross Chastain collected the second stage win of his career in Stage 2, but his elation was short-lived. Moments after the subsequent restart on Lap 194, Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet spun to the inside of Hamlin’s Toyota near the exit of Turn 2 and nosed into the inside wall, ending his race.

“We were fighting the balance all day,” Chastain said. “We were racing with those guys for the lead. I just thought I could run the bottom there off of Turn 2 at the exit of the patch (of new asphalt). I just got loose on the transition and spun out.”

By the time the race ended, 13 of the 36 cars already were in the garage, equaling the number of DNFs last month at Talladega Superspeedway.

Logano’s victory in a Ford kept Chevrolet winless at Darlington since Harvick’s victory there in 2014.

NOTE: There were no issues in NASCAR’s post-race inspection, confirming Joey Logano as the winner in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford. NASCAR did indicate the No. 2 Team Penske Ford of driver Austin Cindric and No. 31 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet of Justin Haley will be brought back to the NASCAR R&D Center for further teardown inspection.
We are going to hand them the car back in cardboard boxes after we take it apart.

 

Burton, Wood Brothers find something to build on at Darlington

Motorsport Images
372 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Kelly Crandall | May 11, 2022 3:24 PM ET

Harrison Burton knows that a 14th-place finish at Darlington Raceway being the season-high for Wood Brothers Racing can’t really be described as a good thing, but he’s seeing it as a small victory.

“And more than finish, I think the speed we had in that race,” Burton said. “There was a part of that race where we came out after a pit stop and hadn’t been really good to start the race, and then the car woke up. We made the right changes on pit road. Joey [Logano] and Denny [Hamlin] were second and third, and I ran them down and caught them. I think Joey had one-lap older tires, so we were pretty even to them. I caught them and was like, ‘OK, now we’re rolling.’

“Looking at the lap time data, that was our strongest race for sure compared to the leaders and that particular segment, we matched the leader’s lap time. So, it’s like, ‘OK, we’re going in the right direction there.’ We have the speed at times to be a top-five car, we just have to go and execute a whole race now. We had one segment where we were really good, and then we tuned ourselves out of it some. I think that was a big victory to run with those guys — catch Denny, catch Joey.”

More NASCAR!

The RACER Mailbag, May 11

CRANDALL: It’s fun to cover NASCAR again

Darlington result feels like a "career-high" for Justin Haley

Burton wasn’t on the same lap as Logano or Hamlin when he caught them because he was racing Brad Keselowski for the free pass. But the rookie still felt it was still the biggest victory of the day to show the No. 21 Ford had speed.

“Then the finish was actually probably worse than what we had lap time wise,” said Burton. “It was not representative of our best runs. We had flat-spotted tires after the big crash, had to pit and lost some track position there. So the finish number was not that exciting, but I think the speed we had was more exciting.”

Saying it’s been a rough start to the year for Burton’s team might be an understatement. In a matter of moments, he went from leading the Daytona 500 to flipping on the backstretch. There have been mistakes from the team and the driver and the misfortune of being caught up in someone else’s incidents.

Darlington was Burton’s first top-15 finish and just his fifth top-20 finish in 12 races. He has three DNFs.

Every week is a new chance to learn, and Burton has kept his head high while committing himself to getting better. Crew chief Brian Wilson, new to the Cup Series himself in this position, has preached the importance of scoring points and giving Burton a car he can be confident with in the pack.
Burton leads Chris Buescher and Kyle Busch at Darlington. Gavin Baker/Motorsport Images

“I told Brian, when we had that run at Darlington I mentioned earlier, that I felt comfortable,” Burton said. “That was the first time where I wasn’t uncomfortable in this race car, which is pretty wild when you think about it. This is a hard race car to drive, which is great for our sport, I think. But when you hit it right, it drives really well.

“We have some notes to build off of now of things that I like, especially based off that run. Some changes I like. Hopefully that can carry over. For me, it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can finally go be aggressive with this car.’ I hadn’t felt that, and now I feel like we’ll be able to replicate that and go get after it more.”

Burton has also learned something about himself through the growing pains and appreciating the small victories.

“I won’t quit,” Burton said. “I will never quit. I think some of the good things about this start is you build confidence in your work ethic and desire. When things are bad, that’s when you find out who you are. You go through adversity in life — everyone has it — and I feel like it makes you better.

“The schedule is as hard as it’s ever been for me personally. The Cup schedule is pretty grueling. So, I’m learning about myself in a work ethic capacity. My love for the sport is as high as it’s ever been because I appreciate what Cup is all about, and I’m getting ready to hopefully start succeeding in that. That’s exciting.”