Motor Racing Digest

 

Posted by: Dave Thompson, follow @phillyfan17

August 24, 2012

Logano withstood several late cautions and held off Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for his sixth Nationwide Series win of the season. Stenhouse Jr. finished half a second behind Logano for second place. Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, and Elliott Sadler rounded out the top-five. Sadler holds a 19 point edge over Stenhouse for the points lead.

“We’ve been so close to winning here, said Logano. “It feels so go to get here in victory lane. It’s Bristol…one of the top three or four race track to win at.”

Stenhouse made contact on the white-flag lap with Sadler to take over second causing Sadler to drop to fifth. Stenhouse walked over to Sadler’s car after the race to apologize for the incident. While Sadler appeared to accept the apology, he said he would race Stenhouse differently in future races as the two compete for the series championship.

Harvick had the dominant car leading 98 laps (most in the race), but he lost the lead to Logano and then went a lap down on pit road when he ran out of fuel. Harvick managed to return to the lead lap after a late caution, but went on to finish in 15th place.

Logano and Harvick had battled side-by-side with Logano repeatedly trying to pass Harvick on the inside for several laps before he was able to make the pass with the help of some lapped traffic with 34 laps remaining in the race.

Logano, Stenhouse, Sadler, and Kyle Busch led the field at the restart after John Wes Townley slammed the wall to bring out the caution. Moments after the green flag, contact between Trevor Bayne and Dillon causing Bayne to make contact with the wall to bring out another late caution. The contact from Dillon irritated Bayne leading him to tap Dillon’s bumper several times before taking his No. 60 to pit road. The drivers were battling for fifth at the time of the incident. Bayne confronted Dillon on pit road after the race and clearly displayed his frustration with Dillon.

Dillon found himself in an earlier incident when he and Justin Allgaier made contact with Allgaier getting the worst of the battle. Allgaier slapped the outside wall in Turn 3, causing heavy damage to the rear end of the No. 31 for the first caution of the race.

Danica Patrick, who struggle most of the race, rebounded from a speeding penalty to finish ninth. The finish was the third-best of her career and her fifth top-10 in the Nationwide series.

The fans witnessed plenty of bumping and banging throughout the race bringing back memories of the “old Bristol”. The race surely pleased track owner/promoter Bruton Smith, who hoped that grinding away the top groove during the summer would create better racing for the fans. While some will likely remain unhappy despite the changes, the race did entertain and even flared a few tempers.

Results of the Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway:

Fin	Str	Car	Driver	Team	Laps	Pts	Bpts	Status	TLd	LLd
1	2	18	Joey Logano(i)	Dollar General Toyota	250	0		RUNNING	3	81
2	5	6	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	NOS Ford	250	43	1	RUNNING	2	60
3	10	54	Kyle Busch(i)	Monster Energy Toyota	250	0		RUNNING
4	4	3	Austin Dillon #	American Ethanol Chevrolet	250	40		RUNNING
5	7	2	Elliott Sadler	OneMain Financial Chevrolet	250	40	1	RUNNING	1	11
6	19	88	Cole Whitt #	SPY Optic Chevrolet	250	38		RUNNING
7	12	36	Ryan Blaney	Seal Wrap Chevrolet	250	37		RUNNING
8	18	43	Michael Annett	Pilot/Flying J Ford	250	36		RUNNING
9	34	7	Danica Patrick	GoDaddy.com Chevrolet	250	35		RUNNING
10	9	12	Sam Hornish Jr.	Detroit Genuine Parts Dodge	250	34		RUNNING
11	16	87	Joe Nemechek	AM/FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves Toyota	250	33		RUNNING
12	23	19	Tayler Malsam	G-Oil/Noah’s Light Foundation Toyota	250	32		RUNNING
13	14	44	Mike Bliss	Bandit Chippers Toyota	250	31		RUNNING
14	15	38	Kasey Kahne(i)	Great Clips Chevrolet	250	0		RUNNING
15	13	33	Kevin Harvick(i)	Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet	250	0		RUNNING	1	98
16	1	60	Trevor Bayne	Yourracecar.com Ford	250	28		RUNNING
17	33	01	Mike Wallace	Tradebank Chevrolet	247	27		RUNNING
18	26	81	Jason Bowles #	American Majority Dodge	247	26		RUNNING
19	27	39	Josh Richards	Joy Global Ford	247	25		RUNNING
20	30	86	Kevin Lepage	Qello Ford	247	24		RUNNING
21	11	30	Nelson Piquet Jr(i)	Autotrac/Qualcomm Chevrolet	246	0		RUNNING
22	38	24	Benny Gordon	Big Timber/Horizon Entertainment Toyota	246	22		RUNNING
23	20	99	John Wes Townley(i)	Zaxby’s Toyota	246	0		RUNNING
24	42	23	Robert Richardson Jr.	North Texas Pipe Chevrolet	246	20		RUNNING
25	28	15	Timmy Hill	Lilly Trucking Chevrolet	245	19		RUNNING
26	41	4	Brad Teague	SCAG Commercial Mowers Chevrolet	245	18		RUNNING
27	39	14	Eric McClure	Hefty/Reynolds Wrap Toyota	244	17		RUNNING
28	36	41	Fain Skinner	Carport Empire Ford	244	16		RUNNING
29	29	70	Johanna Long #	Foretravel Chevrolet	244	15		RUNNING
30	6	31	Justin Allgaier	Brandt Chevrolet	242	14		RUNNING
31	32	52	Joey Gase #	Jimco Windows Chevrolet	239	13		RUNNING
32	8	22	Brad Keselowski(i)	Discount Tire Dodge	226	0		RUNNING
33	21	51	Jeremy Clements	stjude.org Chevrolet	213	11		RUNNING
34	3	11	Brian Scott	Dollar General Toyota	198	10		Clutch
35	22	40	Erik Darnell	The Motorsports Group Chevrolet	173	9		Electrical
36	40	74	Rick Crawford(i)	Koma Unwind Chevrolet	55	0		Overheating
37	43	71	Carl Long	Lilly Trucking Chevrolet	27	7		Oil Pressure
38	25	75	Scott Riggs(i)	Lilly Trucking Chevrolet	20	0		Electrical
39	37	50	David Starr(i)	Make Motorsports Chevrolet	19	0		Engine
40	24	42	Josh Wise(i)	Curtis Key Plumbing Chevrolet	14	0		Electrical
41	35	08	Tim Andrews	Randy Hill Racing Ford	11	3		Brakes
42	17	10	Jeff Green	TriStar Motorsports Toyota	6	2		Vibration
43	31	46	Chase Miller	The Motorsports Group Chevrolet	2	1		Ignition