Logano turns in historic run

DOVER, Del. - His chase for a Cup championship all but over, Joey Logano turned his pursuit toward Dover history.

Logano dominated at Dover International Speedwayonce more and took the checkered flag in the track’s Nationwide Series race forthe fourth consecutive time. Logano became the first driver to win four races in a row at Dover in NASCAR’s second-tier series.

He pulled away in the No. 22 Ford down the stretch Saturday and was never seriously challenged for the win on the mile track.

“It’s been my favorite race track ever since I started here,” he said.

With good reason. Logano has swept the two Dover races the last two seasons.

Logano, who started on the pole and led 106 laps, won for the third time this season. Four drivers have won 11 times in the No. 22 Ford, all with crew chief Jeremy Bullins. Brad Keselowski, AJ Allmendinger and Ryan Blaney have all won in the No. 22.

“There were a lot of streaks to be kept alive today and we managed to pull that off,” Bullins said.

Kyle Larson was second, followed by Kevin Harvick, Brian Vickers and Elliott Sadler.

Sam Hornish Jr. was 17th and had his points lead shrink to four over Austin Dillon with five races left.

“If we could have lived up to our potential today, I would feel a lot better about it,” Hornish said. “We go to some tracks that I really like. There’s not a place that I don’t like that we’re going to go, so I’m really excited about what we’ve got.”

For all his Saturday success, Logano has yet to transfer those regular wins to the Sprint Cup series. He has had only one top-five finish in nine career Cup starts at Dover.

He blamed a string of badluck that derailed his Dover Cup races.

“I’ve had a lot of fast race cars here there were capable of running top fives,” he said. “I’ve had loose wheels, I’ve had a flat tire, I’ve had motors blowing up. I’ve gone through a lot at this race track.”

Logano made the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship field in his first season at Penske Racing, though it came with a dash of controversy because of the Richmond scandal. His team was placed on probation after radio traffic appeared to showFront Row Racing’s crew chief and spotter talking about David Gilliland giving Logano a pivotal spot on the track in exchange for something unidentified from Penske Racing.

He blew an engine in the first Chase race and finished 37th. He was 14th last week at New Hampshire and is buried in 12th in the standings.

“We’re not out of it yet,” Logano said. “We can still win it. We’ve got a tough road ahead of us. We really can’t have a bad race in the next eight.”

Sports, Pages 23 on 09/29/2013

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