FONTANA, Calif. – Joey Logano (No. 22 Discount Tire Ford) was dominant from start to finish on Saturday in winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Roseanne 300 at Auto Club Speedway.
Logano won his first Xfinity Series race this season, 29th Xfinity race in his career, and his third at the two-mile Fontana track as his Team Penske Ford outdueled second-place finisher Justin Allgaier (No. 7 Hellmann’s Chevrolet). Logano led for 139 of the 150 laps completed.
“Total team effort today; great pit stops,” said Logano, who embraced crew chief Brian Wilson on Victory Lane. “Great car, oh my gosh. It was one of those races where you are relieved to win, but one that you’re supposed to win when you have a car that fast. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in Victory Lane, which is not good, but it feels great to be here.”
It was a big decision by Wilson that led Logano to stay out on the track with four laps on his Goodyear tires, while the rest of the field following him decided to enter pit row following a caution on Lap 109 for fluid on the track.
“Yeah, any time you have a car like that you worry you’re going to screw it up,” Wilson said. “When I saw that we were the only car out there I thought we had screwed it up right there. It was early enough and I felt like we had enough laps left.”
But Logano would get his fresh tires after all, after a caution for debris on Lap 120 took him back to pit row. The stop dropped him from the lead to 16th on the restart. But it only took Logano four laps to get back to the front and, ultimately, he was able to retake the lead on Lap 128.
“I said, ‘You’re smarter than me, you make the call,’ ” Logano said. “I just drive, and he (Wilson) calls the race.”
“Everything went as planned,” Logano added. “If you don’t screw something up with a car like that, then you win the race. It’s great to have such a dominant car. It stings a lot when you have a car like that and you don’t win the race.”
Allgaier posted his fifth top-10 finish in 10 races at Auto Club Speedway, and his fourth of 2018.
“Hats off to Joey today. They just had the dominant car today,” Allgaier said.
Elliott Sadler (No. 1 Cessna Chevrolet) finished third, his 10th top-10 finish in 14 races at Auto Club Speedway. Sadler leads the overall points standings by four over Tyler Reddick.
Fourth-place finisher Austin Dillon (No. 3 Red Kap/Prudential Overall Supply Chevrolet) was the only other Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular in the field besides Logano, who kept a streak alive of non-Xfinity series winners of the race at Auto Club Speedway since 2002. Daniel Hemric (No. 21 South Point Hotel and Casino Chevrolet) placed fifth.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series now takes two weeks off before returning to the track at Texas Motor Speedway for the My Bariatric Solutions 300 on April 7.
Source: Auto Club Speedway