Logano becomes 1st Nationwide driver to win at Kentucky Speedway 3 straight races from pole

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Logano wins at Kentucky for third straight time

SPARTA, Ky. — Joey Logano became the first Nationwide Series driver to win three consecutive races at the same track when starting from the pole as he held off Carl Edwards to win the Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday night.

“This probably feels better than any other win I’ve ever had,” Logano said after his seventh career series win. “It’s cool for Kentucky. I would’ve never thought 2-for-2, now it’s 3-for-3, I’m pretty stoked about that.”

Logano had to beat the rain, which was rapidly moving into the area, and Edwards to pick up his first Nationwide victory of the season at the 1.5-mile tri-oval track.

“I used to come here about once every three weeks when we were testing, I probably ran a million laps here,” Logano said. “I said, ‘Man if I ever to get race here I’ll be pretty good.’ I guess hard work pays off.”

Points leader Brad Keselowski, who started 25th, finished third, while Brendan Gaughan, whom Logano passed to take the lead for the final time, finished fourth. Reed Sorenson rounded out the top five.

Logano, who led 106 of the 200 laps, and Sorenson, who led 49, dominated the first half of the race. Cautions and the threat of rain dominated the last half. There were four yellow flags in the first 133 laps, but six over the final 67.

“(Crew chief) Kevin (Kidd) was talking about the weather coming in and I knew on every restart I was going to have to make a push,” said Logano, who briefly lost his lead to Gaughan on Lap 175 coming off a restart from the race’s record-tying 10th caution flag but retook it on the next lap coming off turn 4 at the track.

Edwards, who didn’t practice here Friday and qualified 10th earlier Saturday, made the biggest push late. He got on Logano’s rear bumper with nine laps to go, but could never get closer.

“My car was pretty good so I didn’t know how he was catching me,” Logano said. “He was moving a little higher, so I moved up and forced him to go to the bottom a little bit.”

Edwards finished second for the second straight week after coming in behind Keselowski at last week’s race at Nashville. Edwards had problems with his right rear tire early in the race and dropped as low as 31st before rallying.

“I thought we were going to get him,” Edwards said. “He just did a really good job of driving smart. His car was just a little bit faster.”

Keselowski has a 272-point lead over Edwards in the driver standings, while Justin Allgaier leap-frogged Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick — who didn’t run here — into third place in the standings. Busch and Harvick dropped to fourth and fifth, respectively, in the driver standings while Paul Menard, who finished 32nd due to an accident, remained in sixth and Logano seventh.

With his sixth-place finish Saturday night, Steve Wallace climbed one place to eighth in the driver standings, while Gaughan moved up to ninth. Jason Leffler, who finished 33rd because of an accident, dropped two places to 10th.