Joey Logano and the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang won the pole and lead the most laps with a dominating Discount Tire Ford Mustang, but lost the lead late after contact with Kevin Harvick and finished seventh in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) event at Michigan International Speedway. Logano grabbed the pole on Saturday morning in qualifying, his third pole of the season and the 29th NXS pole of his career. As the race went green, Logano led the first nine laps before falling back to fourth and eventually clawing his way back to second just before a competition caution on lap 25. After taking four tires – while a majority of the field took two tire – Logano restarted the race in eighth but quickly made his way back to the front, taking the lead once again on lap 43. The Discount Tire Mustang was strong all afternoon long, leading a race-high 54 laps. Varying pit strategies saw Logano give up the lead and stop for a final time on lap 93. After restarting 13th, it took Logano just over 10 laps to race his way back to the front, taking the lead once again on lap 106. Over the final 20 laps, Logano fought hard restart after restart to maintain the top spot. Then, while leading with less than 10 laps to go, the No. 88 of Harvick made an attempt to grab the top spot and slid up into the side of the No. 22, sending both cars up the track and against the outside wall. Despite slipping back to 11th, Logano was able to recover over the final laps to finish seventh. It was the second-straight year that Logano had the dominate car at Michigan only to come up short at the checkers. Last season, Logano had a commanding lead with five laps to go when he had to pit under green for a flat tire after running over debris on the track. With the seventh-place finish, the first time Logano has finished worse than second this season, the No. 22 team continues to lead the NXS Owners’ point standings, 26 point ahead of the No. 60 from Roush-Fenway Racing.

“We had an amazing Discount Tire Ford Mustang today. We had the best car out there for sure. The car was just so fast. I could do what I wanted on restarts and we put ourselves in position to win the race, despite having a different pit strategy then most of the guys out there. We had the perfect shot to win the race and we just got taken out. We were racing for a win here and it just seems like he (Harvick) drove in there pretty hard trying to slide me. I drove up in there too and he got loose underneath me and got into my left rear and up we both went into the race track. It is unfortunate. I had a fast Discount Tire Ford, obviously the winning car, leading a ton of laps and up there at the end of the race. I was racing hard and he just drove over his head a little bit. I’m glad we had such a great car, I just wish we would have had a shot to win the race and not had it taken away from us like it was. This car and this team deserved way better than what we got out of today.”