Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Global

Logano wins Daytona Clash as leaders collide on final lap

Joey Logano won his first Clash at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday.

Race winner Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford celebrates

Race winner Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford celebrates

Lesley Ann Miller / Motorsport Images

Race winner Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford
Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, collides with Brad Keselowski, Team Penske Ford
Race winner Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford
Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford takes the win
Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, collides with Brad Keselowski, Team Penske Ford
Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota leads
Start: Brad Keselowski, Team Penske Ford leads
Brad Keselowski, Team Penske Ford leads

Although Denny Hamlin appeared to have command of the race — he led 48 of 75 laps — the complexion changed in the closing circuits.

The battle

With three to go, the Team Penske Fords ganged up on Kyle Busch to move into the top five. The Penske pair passed Matt Kenseth with two laps remaining, then moved up on Hamlin and Daniel Suarez.

On the white flag lap, Brad Keselowski went to the inside of Hamlin. Although Hamlin held onto the No. 11 car as long as he could, he finally spun out in Turn 2 as Logano took the lead down the back stretch. For Ford, it was the manufacturer’s first win since 2004 with Dale Jarrett.

“It’s cool to win the Clash,” Logano said. “We came close last year and it’s really neat to be in Victory Lane and a good start to our day.”

Logano on fighting the Toyota juggernaut

Logano, who finished second to Hamlin in last year’s Clash, had seen this scenario play out before. In the 2016 Daytona 500, the Toyotas freight-trained the field and owned the podium.

“The Toyotas are so selfless, I guess is the way to look at it,” Logano added. “They are able to work together and think of one car of winning, and they’re really good at that. We had to think the same way as Ford and with Stewart-Haas and the Penske cars and we were able to get a good enough run to work together enough to break them up and make the passes and then there at the end was kind of a mess. Everything was going really fast. Everything was going on and I was just in the right place at the right time.”

“It’s cool to win the Clash,” Logano said. “We came close last year and it’s really neat to be in Victory Lane and a good start to our day.”

Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, Danica Patrick and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five.

The decision for the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas to pit on the final lap of the first 25-lap segment, provided the teammates with the necessary track position needed to dominate. The Gibbs cars ran first through fourth for the majority of the second segment.

Hamlin finished 13th.

“The 2 was coming with a huge run and I was doing everything I could to block, but he was coming at such a high rate of speed that I didn’t have time to block,” Hamlin said.

The race was slowed by three cautions. Jimmie Johnson triggered the first yellow flag on Lap 17. He wiggled coming off of Turn 4 and clipped the No. 41 Haas Ford carrying Kurt Busch. Busch slammed nose first into the outside wall with the impact lifting the car off of the ground before sliding down the front stretch into the grass and stopping just short of the start-finish line.

“I was just minding my own business in the low groove and we got tagged in the right-rear,” Busch said. “It’s kind of a shame – all of the hard work and the effort everybody puts into the off-season – Doug Yates and his engines and everybody from Ford and everybody at Stewart-Haas, all of the effort put towards building a car and we didn’t even make it to the first pit stop, so it’s kind of a bummer.”

Crew chief Chad Knaus asked Johnson what caused the accident.

“Just got loose off of four,” Johnson said. “That was the deepest I was in the field and I got loose and slid down into the 41.”

Bad day for Jimmie Johnson

Busch was evaluated at the Infield Care Center and released. He was the first driver to experience NASCAR’s new concussion protocol.

“There was an individual that met me out by the car, rode with me in the ambulance and again met with the doctors and just went through different sequences to check all of the different vitals and we were released,” Busch said. “It’s just a little bit of an upgrade. You can tell that they’ve made an effort and it’s nice to have that security.”

Johnson returned to the field but lasted to Lap 49, when the car broke loose off of Turn 4 and crashed into the inside wall just before pit road. He apologized to the crew before climbing out of the car. Knaus asked spotter Earl Barban what happened to the driver.

“He just spun out all by himself as he got to the flat,” Barban said.

Johnson finished 16th. The wreck marks his sixth consecutive DNF in the Clash.

“It’s bizarre because it drove really good everywhere else, then off of (Turn) 4 the first time I had a handling problem was when it broke free and I got into the No. 41  and then after that it was really loose,” Johnson said. "After that caution and the last long stretch before I crashed again. Just off of Turn 4. The sun certainly sits on that edge of the track a little bit harder than anywhere else. We will take some notes and learn from those mistakes and apply that to the (Daytona) 500 car.”

With 15 laps remaining, the JGR cars established a four-car break away with Hamlin leading Suarez, Kenseth and Busch. As the field gathered up to make a run coming into Turn 3, Martin Truex Jr. came down on Kyle Larson, bounced off and spun into wall. He collected Chris Buescher in the process. Buescher continued in the race and finished ninth. Truex was scored 15th.

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Jimmie Johnson on retirement: "I want to do it when the time is right"
Next article Keselowski vows "to make that move again" despite last-lap wreck

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Global