Last year Joey Logano had a checkered flag taken away from him for aggressive driving. This year he got to take it home after a race-long battle with rookie and pole sitter Sergio Pena.
Logano wound up leading a race-high 171 laps. Pena led the other 54 and they swapped the lead five times at the one-half mile Toyota Speedway, in Irwindale, California.
Andrew Ranger, of Roxton Pond, QE finished 15 after starting 26th and Daryl Harr, of St. Albert, Alberta, finished 25th.
Pena, 16, seemingly came out of nowhere to beat three teammates to pre-qualify, in his first race in NASCAR’s top level developmental series. Then he won the pole for Revolution Racing driving for Max Siegel, the former business boss of Dale Earnhardt, Inc, and Logano started second.
The cars were KN Series with 358 cu. in engines (approx 6 litres), producing 625hp cars which run about 150 pounds lighter than the Sprint Cup CoTs. The race was run in segments.
Logano held off Pena for most of the first 100 laps but, Pena raced him clean and hard.
The field had a full-field, final, pit stop on 200 setting up a scheduled 25-lap shootout. Pena led, but, another caution came out with ten laps to go. The more experienced Logano, winner of the 2007 edition, and Matt Kobyluck, the winner last year, got better starts relegated Pena to third.
Pena eventually got his second place back, in the end Logano admitted he didn’t have the best car, but, said. "As I kept going I had to pull out all my tricks and try to find a little bit here and there to get him on the restarts.”
Logano wound up leading a race-high 171 laps. Pena led the other 54 and they swapped the lead five times at the one-half mile Toyota Speedway, in Irwindale, California.
Andrew Ranger, of Roxton Pond, QE finished 15 after starting 26th and Daryl Harr, of St. Albert, Alberta, finished 25th.
Pena, 16, seemingly came out of nowhere to beat three teammates to pre-qualify, in his first race in NASCAR’s top level developmental series. Then he won the pole for Revolution Racing driving for Max Siegel, the former business boss of Dale Earnhardt, Inc, and Logano started second.
The cars were KN Series with 358 cu. in engines (approx 6 litres), producing 625hp cars which run about 150 pounds lighter than the Sprint Cup CoTs. The race was run in segments.
Logano held off Pena for most of the first 100 laps but, Pena raced him clean and hard.
The field had a full-field, final, pit stop on 200 setting up a scheduled 25-lap shootout. Pena led, but, another caution came out with ten laps to go. The more experienced Logano, winner of the 2007 edition, and Matt Kobyluck, the winner last year, got better starts relegated Pena to third.
Pena eventually got his second place back, in the end Logano admitted he didn’t have the best car, but, said. "As I kept going I had to pull out all my tricks and try to find a little bit here and there to get him on the restarts.”