Joey Logano defends Las Vegas victory with another win

 

LAS VEGAS (AP) Joey Logano won at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a two-lap sprint to the finish Sunday that ended under caution.
Logano, winner of this race a year ago, put his No. 22 Ford for Team Penske in victory lane by holding off runner-up Matt DiBenedetto, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Austin Dillon.
A caution with six laps remaining complicated the race to the finish as all but seven cars on the lead lap headed to pit road for tires. But Logano, working with new crew chief Paul Wolfe for just the second race since an offseason Penske team overhaul, called for his driver to come get new tires.
But Logano didn’t catch the directive on his radio, stayed out and moved into the lead. He had six other cars behind him on old tires, but 17 cars with fresh tires.
It didn’t matter as Logano got a great jump on the restart and was too far out front for the outcome to be altered when the caution waved on the final lap. Because Logano had already taken the white flag, he was scored with his first win of the season.
DiBenedetto in a Ford for the Wood Brothers – a Penske partner – for his second race was 0.491 seconds behind. Stenhouse, pole-sitter for the Daytona 500 a week ago, was third in a Chevrolet in his second race for new team JTG-Daugherty Racing.
Dillon was fourth for Richard Childress Racing and followed by Jimmie Johnson, Bubba Wallace, Logano teammate Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick.
Kyle Larson and Ty Dillon rounded out the top 10.
Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in 17th as the brand and Joe Gibbs Racing struggled the entire 400 miles.
BAD BREAK
Chase Elliott appeared to be the driver to beat through the first two stages, both wins for Elliott in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
But his shot to win the race ended after a tire issue following a pit stop from the lead caused Elliott to hit the wall. He had led five different times for 70 laps, with the two stage victories, before heading to pit road for repairs.
Elliott finished 26th.
BLANEY BOUNCES BACK
An emotional week for Ryan Blaney ended with an 11th place finish at Las Vegas and Blaney moving toward closure after Ryan Newman’s crash on the final lap of Monday night’s Daytona 500.
It was contact from Blaney that triggered Newman’s crash, and Blaney said Sunday morning before the race he struggled in the first few days over his role in the accident.
“I talked to his dad on Tuesday and said when he’s feeling better, I’d like to talk to Ryan,” Blaney told The Associated Press. “Ryan called me Wednesday and just talking to him, hearing him, really made things easier.”
Blaney said he’d never before been involved in such a violent crash and the potential of Newman being hurt rattled him.
“You never want to see something like that, especially coming off your own nose,” Blaney told AP.
Blaney thought he had a shot to win the race until he was one of the drivers to pit on the final stop and he failed to make up the difference with his fresh tires.
UP NEXT
Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, where Kyle Busch won last season. It is not determined if Ryan Newman will be back in his car next week, or if the team will use a replacement driver again.