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Las Vegas NASCAR: Logano resists Keselowski in Penske one-two

Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano took his first victory of the season at Las Vegas by fending off a late race challenge from Penske Ford team-mate Brad Keselowski

Logano, who started 10th took the lead of the 267-lap race from Stewart-Haas's Kevin Harvick midway through the final stage and resisted Atlanta winner Keselowski's advances on the final lap to record the 22nd Cup victory of his career by 0.236 seconds.

Behind Keselowski, Kyle Busch brought the #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota home in third place, ahead of stage one winner and polesitter Harvick, having recovered from being a lap down after being awarded a drivethrough penalty for speeding while entering the pits on lap 119.

Having dominated stage one, leading by as much 4.5s at times, Harvick struggled to replicate the pace he had in the opening 80 laps throughout the remainder of the race.

The #11 SHR Ford led a race high 89 laps, but was beset by grip problems on-track and while exiting his pit-box, meaning he could only finish in fourth, but still a clear margin ahead of the remainder of the pack, headed by Kurt Busch.

By running an off-set strategy, Busch was able to make the most of an incident-free race, to climb from 28th on the grid to take fifth place. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver did not pit with the rest of the field at the end of stage two, which had been claimed by Logano, and elected to run a little longer into the final 107-lap stage.

When he rejoined with around 60 laps left to run, he was in seventh place, and quickly passed the inhabitants of fifth and sixth, Aric Almirola and Denny Hamlin, to finish as the highest of the Chevrolet runners.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr, who led five laps through one of the pitstop cycles, took sixth place for Roush Fenway Racing, ahead of SHR's Almirola, who rose from 25th on the grid to a seventh-place finish.

2017 Cup series champion Martin Truex Jr mirrored Almirola's rise in the #19 JGR, climbing from 23rd to eighth, just ahead of Chase Elliott's Chevrolet.

Daytona 500 winner Hamlin rounded out the top 10, as 37 of the 38 starters finished - Joey Gase being the exception with an engine problem in the early stages.

Race result

Pos Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 267 2h35m11.s
2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 267 0.236s
3 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 267 1.419s
4 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing Ford 267 2.530s
5 Kurt Busch Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 267 10.483s
6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 267 19.287s
7 Aric Almirola Stewart-Haas Racing Ford 267 19.562s
8 Martin Truex Jr. Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 267 19.748s
9 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 267 21.137s
10 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 267 21.951s
11 Alex Bowman Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 267 22.383s
12 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 267 23.380s
13 Erik Jones Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 267 25.271s
14 Clint Bowyer Stewart-Haas Racing Ford 267 27.236s
15 Paul Menard Wood Brothers Racing Ford 267 27.882s
16 William Byron Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 267 28.192s
17 Daniel Suarez Stewart-Haas Racing Ford 267 28.602s
18 Chris Buescher JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 267 28.759s
19 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 266 1 Lap
20 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 266 1 Lap
21 Matt DiBenedetto Leavine Family Racing Toyota 266 1 Lap
22 Ryan Blaney Team Penske Ford 266 1 Lap
23 Daniel Hemric Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 265 2 Laps
24 Ryan Newman Roush Fenway Racing Ford 265 2 Laps
25 Ryan Preece JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 265 2 Laps
26 Darrell Wallace Jr. Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet 265 2 Laps
27 Corey LaJoie Go FAS Racing Ford 264 3 Laps
28 David Ragan Front Row Motorsports Ford 264 3 Laps
29 Ty Dillon Germain Racing Chevrolet 264 3 Laps
30 Michael McDowell Front Row Motorsports Ford 263 4 Laps
31 Parker Kligerman Gaunt Brothers Racing Toyota 263 4 Laps
32 Landon Cassill StarCom Racing Chevrolet 260 7 Laps
33 Ross Chastain Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 259 8 Laps
34 Matt Tifft Front Row Motorsports Ford 259 8 Laps
35 Cody Ware Petty Ware Racing Chevrolet 253 14 Laps
36 Reed Sorenson Spire Motorsports Chevrolet 252 15 Laps
37 B.J. McLeod Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet 220 47 Laps
38 Joey Gase MBM Motorsports Toyota 10 Engine

Drivers' standings

Pos Driver Points
1 Joey Logano 133
2 Kevin Harvick 131
3 Denny Hamlin 127
4 Kyle Busch 121
5 Brad Keselowski 115
6 Kyle Larson 102
7 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 99
8 Martin Truex Jr. 98
9 Erik Jones 98
10 Kurt Busch 95
11 Aric Almirola 92
12 Alex Bowman 85
13 Clint Bowyer 83
14 Chase Elliott 81
15 Ryan Blaney 69
16 William Byron 66
17 Jimmie Johnson 65
18 Daniel Suarez 63
19 Ryan Newman 62
20 Paul Menard 61
21 Austin Dillon 56
22 Ty Dillon 52
23 Chris Buescher 52
24 Matt DiBenedetto 48
25 Ryan Preece 44
26 Michael McDowell 40
27 David Ragan 37
28 Corey LaJoie 37
29 Daniel Hemric 34
30 Darrell Wallace Jr. 27
31 Jamie McMurray 19
32 Matt Tifft 13
33 Reed Sorenson 1
33 Casey Mears 1


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