NASCAR Nationwide Series
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NNS: Logano Wins Fierce Fontana Race
Joe Gibbs Racing scores eighth straight victory at ACS…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted March 24, 2012   Fontana, CA
Joey Logano emerged from a web of traffic over the closing laps and won Saturday’s Royal Purple 300 Nationwide Series race at Auto Club Speedway.

Logano pulled away from the rest of the leaders on a restart with 12 laps to go and led Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to the finish line in the Joe Gibbs No. 18 Toyota.

The victory was the eighth straight for Gibbs cars at the two-mile track.

“The car was the class of the field all day,” Logano said. “They had plenty of shots at me. The restarts were hairy. It was a lot of fun. It means a lot to win these things.”

The relative ease of the finish hid some of the fierce racing that opened the door for Logano’s win.

The second half of the afternoon featured a spirited battle for the lead that involved the cars of Logano, Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Busch, Justin Allgaier and Brendan Gaughan.

The wrestling at the front was particularly tight after restarts as the top drivers picked lanes and banged fenders.

Allgaier fell out of the struggle at the front with 39 laps remaining as his car was hit by engine trouble.

The race’s final caution flew with 17 laps to go as Blake Koch slid off turn four a few feet in front of second-place Brad Keselowski. Logano led at that point.

After pit stops, Logano sprinted from third place to the front on the ensuing restart and led the rest of the way. Behind him, cars went four and five wide as the other contenders fought for position.

Stenhouse came home second, Keselowski third, Brian Scott fourth and Austin Dillon fifth.

Busch had a poor final pit stop and wasn’t a factor at the front at the finish.

Series point leader Elliott Sadler finished ninth and kept his spot atop the standings.

Stenhouse said his car was ‘back and forth, loose and tight, loose and tight. The last couple of runs we were a little too tight. I was hoping we could get another win, but second isn’t too bad.”

Keselowski said the Nationwide cars “put on an awesome show here the way they draft and get around here.”

Danica Patrick had engine problems near the race’s halfway point and parked for the day.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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