Joey Logano drove away from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin after a green-white-checkered-flag restart and won Friday night's VFW Sport Clips 200 Nationwide Series event at Darlington Raceway.
Hamlin, who complained of an engine problem during the final two laps, finished 0.256sec behind Logano in the runner-up position. Brad Keselowski ran third, followed by Sam Hornish Jr. and rookie Austin Dillon, as the race went four laps past its scheduled distance of 147 laps.
The victory was Logano's second straight in the series, his third of the season and the 12th of his career. Danica Patrick finished 12th and Travis Pastrana 17th, both on the lead lap in their Darlington debuts.
Elliott Sadler took a bump from Logano's Toyota moments after a restart on Lap 143 and nosed into the outside wall near the entry to Turn 1. Sadler's car was too hobbled to continue, leaving him in 24th place at the finish and dropping to 23 points behind series leader Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who started on the pole and finished sixth.
Sadler's crash caused the sixth caution of the race and forced overtime, with the field taking the green flag on lap 150.
Hamlin led Kurt Busch by more than five seconds when the right-front tire on Busch's No. 54 Toyota blew on Lap 126, shooting the nose of the car into the outside wall. The resulting caution brought the top cars to pit road, with Sadler grabbing the lead with a two-tire stop under the yellow.
Before the caution, the fourth of the race, Hamlin had dominated. Busch took the lead briefly with a bold three-wide move on a lap 51 restart, but Hamlin regained the top spot on lap 53 and began to pull away.
His advantage over Busch grew to nearly seven seconds through a cycle of green-flag stops, before Busch's tire blew to bring out the yellow flag.
| Pos |
Driver |
Car/Engine |
Laps |
Time/Delay |
| 1 |
Joey Logano |
Toyota |
151 |
1h 50:29. |
| 2 |
Denny Hamlin |
Toyota |
151 |
0.255 |
| 3 |
Brad Keselowski |
Dodge |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 4 |
Sam Hornish Jr. |
Dodge |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 5 |
Austin Dillon |
Chevrolet |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 6 |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
Ford |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 7 |
Brian Scott |
Toyota |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 8 |
Kurt Busch |
Toyota |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 9 |
James Buescher |
Chevrolet |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 10 |
Cole Whitt |
Chevrolet |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 11 |
Joe Nemechek |
Toyota |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 12 |
Danica Patrick |
Chevrolet |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 13 |
Justin Allgaier |
Chevrolet |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 14 |
Michael Annett |
Ford |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 15 |
Mike Bliss |
Toyota |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 16 |
Timmy Hill |
Ford |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 17 |
Travis Pastrana |
Toyota |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 18 |
Kasey Kahne |
Chevrolet |
151 |
23:09:31. |
| 19 |
Jeff Green |
Toyota |
149 |
2 Laps |
| 20 |
Danny Efland |
Chevrolet |
148 |
3 Laps |
| 21 |
Jason Bowles |
Toyota |
148 |
3 Laps |
| 22 |
Morgan Shepherd |
Chevrolet |
147 |
4 Laps |
| 23 |
Jamie Dick |
Chevrolet |
144 |
7 Laps |
| 24 |
Elliott Sadler |
Chevrolet |
143 |
Accident |
| 25 |
Josh Richards |
Ford |
143 |
8 Laps |
| 26 |
Brendan Gaughan |
Chevrolet |
138 |
Accident |
| 27 |
Derrike Cope |
Dodge |
138 |
13 Laps |
| 28 |
Matt Frahm |
Ford |
125 |
Engine |
| 29 |
Erik Darnell |
Chevrolet |
91 |
Clutch |
| 30 |
Mike Wallace |
Chevrolet |
81 |
70 Laps |
| 31 |
Tayler Malsam |
Toyota |
60 |
Transmission |
| 32 |
T.J. Bell |
Chevrolet |
44 |
Accident |
| 33 |
Jeremy Clements |
Chevrolet |
42 |
109 Laps |
| 34 |
Blake Koch |
Chevrolet |
29 |
Electrical |
| 35 |
Kevin Lepage |
Chevrolet |
25 |
Engine |
| 36 |
Tony Raines |
Toyota |
14 |
Vibrations |
| 37 |
Mike Harmon |
Chevrolet |
10 |
Brakes |
| 38 |
Scott Riggs |
Chevrolet |
7 |
Vibrations |
| 39 |
Josh Wise |
Chevrolet |
7 |
Electrical |
| 40 |
Casey Roderick |
Chevrolet |
3 |
Accident |
| 41 |
Chase Miller |
Chevrolet |
2 |
Accident |
| 42 |
Scott Speed |
Chevrolet |
2 |
Clutch |
| 43 |
Ryan Blaney |
Chevrolet |
1 |
Accident |