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race review

• Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang made history on Monday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway, as the 30-year-old driver won the first NASCAR Cup Series race on dirt in over 50 years, leading the final 61 laps in the rain-delayed Bristol Dirt Race.
• After starting in 10th, Logano worked forward, settling into the seventh position and being patient for the first 50-lap run all while trying to manage tire wear and observe track changes. Logano was ninth at the first competition caution and gained several spots as the race went back green when the No. 20 and No. 5 cars got together, triggering a multi-vehicle incident. The Shell-Pennzoil Mustang finished the stage in the sixth position.
• The adjustments on the first two stops worked for Logano as he moved the Shell-Pennzoil forward from sixth to fourth, running lap times faster than the race leader in the later stages of the run. Logano would climb to the second position just after halfway in the second stage, trailing race leader Daniel Suarez as NASCAR adapted a single-file restart policy to help with the dust on restarts.
• Logano would claim the lead late in the second stage, cruising to his second stage win of the 2021 season. On the stop, the team made a trackbar adjustment trying to help Logano fire off better on the short run without hurting the long run speed in the Shell-Pennzoil Mustang. On the restart for the final 50-lap run, Logano would battle side-by-side with the No. 11 of Denny Hamlin for the opening 10 laps before opening up a seven-car gap as the laps started to wind down.
• Logano held the point on throughout the final stage, holding off Hamlin and early race leader Martin Truex Jr. With a nearly one-second lead and less than five laps to go, the caution flag wave, setting up a green-white-checkered shootout. On the green, Logano was able to pull away and hold off Hamlin and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to take his first win of the 2021 season and the 27th victory of his career.
• With the win, Logano locked himself and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil team into the NASCAR Playoffs and moved to second in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings.

 

quote

“It’s incredible. How about Bristol on dirt? This is incredible, unbelievable racetrack — great job by everyone that prepped the track. Obviously, a lot of work over here the last few days. We did a lot of work in the dirt department here the last few weeks. My buddy Ryan Flores and my car chief Jerry Kelley doing a good job with the modified and just making laps and learning where I was going. A lot of that helped. Kevin Buskirk helped a lot, too. He has a lot of knowledge and obviously Paul Wolfe, this team, great car obviously to be able to execute the race that we did and get a win. I was getting nervous. There were so many first-time winners and different winners than there has typically been I said, ‘We’ve got to get a win to make sure we get in the playoffs,’ so it’s amazing to get this Shell-Pennzoil Mustang into Victory Lane at Bristol. There’s nothing like winning at Bristol, but putting dirt on it and being the first to do it is really special.”

 


Bristol Dirt Race