Joey Logano Outruns Kevin Harvick In Kansas And Advances To The Championship 4 Of The NASCAR Playoffs

Joey Logano Outruns Kevin Harvick In Kansas And Advances To The Championship 4 Of The NASCAR Playoffs

by October 19, 2020 0 comments

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Joey Logano held off Kevin Harvick at Kansas Speedway on Sunday to win the Hollywood Casino 400 and advance to the Championship 4 of the NASCAR Playoffs.

In the closing laps of Sunday’s race, Logano finally got around Harvick and set sail; however, Harvick didn’t let Logano get too far ahead. On the final lap, Logano took the high side in Turn 1, while Harvick dove low. Loagno led the way on the backstretch and although he ran into lapped traffic in the final corner, the driver of the Team Penske No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford held on to win his third victory of the season and the 26th of his career. Logano advances to the Championship 4 for the fourth time of his career.

“You gotta want it man,” Logano said. “What an amazing team this Shell Pennzoil team is. I am worn out. I spent more time in the mirror than I did in the windshield there. Pit stops got us positions and got us the lead. The 4 was fast, real fast, especially down the straightaways. I thought if I could hold him off the first 15 laps that I would have a chance. Dirty air was the best for us. As we caught lap traffic I was able to gap ourselves as he got more dirty air and I was able to draft somebody because I was a little slow down the straightaway. Man, I am exhausted after that. We are going to Phoenix and racing for a championship again. Heck yeah!”

Harvick held on to a runner-up finish, his first top-five finish since he won at Bristol Motor Speedway in August. While the driver of the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Jimmy John’s Ford led a race high of 85 laps, the final pit stop prior to the last restart of the afternoon is when he lost the lead to Logano.

“We just needed to get off of pit road first,” Harvick said. “It came down to controlling that restart and we lost the lead there on the restart and wound up trying to battle and didn’t get the lead on the restart but just really, really fast Jimmy John’s Ford Mustang. All our guys did a great job and we had a fast car, we moved all over the race track and we weren’t the best behind somebody but I had a lot of options as they made the car better towards the end of the race. It was a good run for us. I wish we could have one, but we were one short.”

NASCAR Playoff competitors, Alex Bowman and Brad Keselowski finished third and fourth. Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five.

Chase Elliott finished sixth, followed by Ryan Blaney, William Bryon, Martin Truex Jr. and Christopher Bell.

Pole-sitter Elliott, won Stage 1, and Denny Hamlin took the victory in Stage 2.

There were six cautions for 31 laps. The only multi-car accident of the day came out on lap 145, when Matt Kenseth and Erik Jones collided in Turn 4.

The second race of the Round of 8 will be held at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, October 25. Live coverage of the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 will broadcast live on NBCSN and PRN.

Photo Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

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