For the second straight Nationwide race, Joey Logano went from being on the back bumper of the race leader in the closing laps to victory lane. It's just that the circumstances Friday night at Darlington were a bit different than they were at Talladega.
Six days after slingshotting around Kyle Busch right before the checkered flag, Logano restarted in third, directly behind race leader Elliott Sadler with five laps to go on Friday. As the green flag flew, Logano started pushing Sadler in an attempt to leave second-place car Denny Hamlin out to dry. However, Sadler didn't get going as well as Logano did, and the contact wobbled his car and into Hamlin on the outside line.
The contact turned Sadler into the wall and ended his night.
"First off I want to apologize to Elliott," a subdued Logano said in victory lane. "That was obviously not on purpose. We worked so well together at Talladega last week that we were helping each other again there it seemed like and I pushed him ahead on the restart before and got him out front. I was going to do the same thing and I guess he was just spinning his tires still and I was trying to push him ahead and car got squirrely and he starts right."
Sadler, who is racing for the Nationwide Series points championship again after finishing second last year to Ricky Stenhouse Jr., was out front late because of a two-tire pit stop. Hamlin, who finished second after losing a cylinder on the green-white-checker finish, dominated the race, leading by as much as six seconds before the caution flag flew with 19 laps to go.
Duane Carter Eugenio Castellotti Johnny Cecotto Andrea de Cesaris
