Joey Logano, who is having a tough Sprint Cup rookie season, earned his second NASCAR Nationwide Series victory Saturday, holding off teammate Kyle Busch in the Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway in Gladeville, Tenn.
Logano and Busch traded the lead most of the race, with Logano leading the final 10 laps and finishing 0.487 of a second in front.
The victory was Logano’s first of the season and second of his young career. The 18-year-old also won last year at Kentucky Speedway.
The track awards a unique trophy to the race winner, a Sam Bass-painted Gibson Les Paul guitar, which Logano proudly carried home in a case after the race.
The race was a battle between the Gibbs teammates as Busch and Logano led 172 of the race’s 225 laps.
The victory was also the first of the season for JGR’s No. 20 team and crew chief Dave Rogers, and Rogers’ first since his suspension last year.
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Busch completed the JGR 1-2 finish by coming home second. Brad Keselowski was third, followed by Kelly Bires and Carl Edwards.
“I wasn’t too nervous. I was just driving as hard as I could,” Logano said. “I knew I had to have a good restart but Kyle had one, too and he was bearing down on me in one and two, but he couldn’t get out to a lead.”
“We were really good on short runs and that was a factor at the end to get that clean air back on the nose,” Logano said. “That worked against Kyle but it’s really cool to have a 1-2 finish for Joe Gibbs Racing and it’s a big deal for the guys at the shop.”
Despite his second-place finish, Busch was noticeably angry after the race. He has run well at Nashville, but has won only once — in 2003 in an ARCA race.
“He had a better short run car and we were better on the long run,” Busch said. “It’s just a shame we weren’t able to get out there and win this thing. It’s kind of frustrating.”
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