Associated PressJOLIET, Ill. ó Joey Logano won the Nationwide Series race at Chicagoland Speedway for his third win of the season and continues to live up to his billing as one of NASCAR’s rising stars.
Logano passed Kyle Busch with 25 laps left Friday night, then held him off on old tires over the final 10 laps. The 19-year-old Logano, the youngest winner in Sprint Cup history, did not make a late pit stop to get fresh tires.
The gamble paid off for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
Busch, his JGR teammate, knew he couldn’t catch Logano.
“I can’t believe it dude, he’s driving away from me,” Busch said over his radio.
Logano also won Nationwide races at Kentucky Speedway and Nashville, Tenn.
Busch was second. Brian Vickers, Jason Leffler and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five.
“Joey had a better car than us tonight,” Busch said.
Busch kept his overall points lead over pole winner Carl Edwards. It was the fourth 1-2 Logano-Busch combination finish this year.
“They’ve just got their stuff together,” Vickers said.
Busch knows he’s in good shape to contend for the series championship, but he was looking for a win under the lights.
“I’m a now guy,” Busch said. “I hate to wait.”
Busch said he felt like Logano’s team made the wrong call when he refused to stop for tires. There were long stretches of green flag racing that made the clean race easier for the drivers, but didn’t lead to terribly exciting racing.
Vickers, who won the pole for the Cup race, hoped the third-place finish can translate into another strong effort for Saturday night’s race.
“We had the best car at times, usually at the end of the run,” Vickers said. “I thought we had a shot there at the end. I think we’ve got a really good car for tomorrow, so hopefully we can be there at the end of the race.”
Logano is making it look easy lately and one of the top prospects in years is putting the sport on notice. He was all smiles as he shook off a beverage bath in Victory Lane.