Catchfence

It was a Joe Gibbs Racing entry that entered a familiar place in victory lane but this time it was Joey Logano in the No. 20 Gamestop TOYOTA Camry who captured his second career NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) win in Saturday’s Nashville 300 at Nashville Superspeedway.

Last year, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookie left Nashville with a sour taste in his mouth but now, the promising star has a perfect reason to echo the “Guitar Hero” signage in the “Music City”.

It was the Connecticut’s best racing finish of the year since maneuvering a second place finish in the 2009 ARCA RE/MAX Series season opener at Daytona in February. The win also accelerates Logano’s career top-five status to seven and his top-10 results to 17 in 24 career NNS starts.

Kyle Busch, last week’s winner wasn’t able to make it two-for-two and settled for second in the Z-Line Designs TOYOTA Camry.

After starting 19th, Brad Keselowski cleverly sliced through the field and racked up a third place finish giving the JR Motorsports driver his second third place finish in a row in the No. 88 Godaddy.com Chevrolet Impala SS.

Kelly Bires in Kevin Harvick’s No. 33 Charter Communications Chevrolet impressed by improving six positions to rank fourth in his KHI debut. Pole sitter Carl Edwards was unable to overcome a faulty pit road incident and settled for fifth.

Jason Leffer in Todd Braun’s No. 38 Great Clips TOYOTA was sixth followed by David Ragan, Mike Bliss, Steven Wallace and Scott Lagasse, Jr. to close out the top-10. Wallace recovered from an early race spin to notch his third top-10 of the year. Lagasse rose from his deep 38th place starting position in the CJM Racing entry.

Stephen Leicht in Richard Childress Racing’s No. 29 Holiday Inn / Holiday Inn Express Chevrolet faired 11th in his ’09 Nationwide debut. He was followed closely by Jason Keller in Baker Curb’s backyard in 12th.

Hometown hero Burney Lamar had a strong day but faded late in the race to finish 13th in the Dollar General TOYOTA for Braun Racing. Shelby Howard in ML Motorsports’ Chevrolet rebounded nicely from a distant qualifying position to give the Indiana based team their best run thus far of 2009.

After starting third, Michael McDowell wasn’t able to keep his Tom’s Snacks TOYOTA upfront in the closing laps and faded to 15th when the checkered flag was thrown. Still, McDowell, the former ARCA RE/MAX Series ace proved that he is a threat in the JTG-Daugherty Racing entry.

Michael Waltrip, Brendan Gaughan, John Wes Townley, Michael Annett and Dennis Setzer completed the top-20. Townley finished exactly where he started in 18th while Setzer was using the first stand alone event of the season to gain points for the underfunded K-Automotive Racing team.

Casey Atwood in Wayne Day’s Chevrolet finished 22nd in his hometown race while Ricky Stenhouse, Jr who looked spectacular early in the event would be entangled in a late race incident with Joe Nemechek’s and finished 23rd.

Brian Scott in his Nationwide debut for Braun Racing appeared to have a top-15 finish in the books but overheating problems late in the going forced an unscheduled stop to pit road where Scott, the Xpress Motorsports driver in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series lost two laps. Scott was able to finish the race in 25th. Not a finish that shows his performance.

After qualifying ninth, Justin Allgaier looked well on his way to another top-10 run in his rookie season but problems late in the event forced a disappointing 29th place finish for the 2008 ARCA champion. His worst finish since Daytona. Nashville has not been kind to the Springfield, Illinois native but he’ll get another shot in June when the series return for a little night racing.

Tim Andrews in his first race of 2009 had an eventful day and finished 33rd in the No. 31 Zona Health Chevrolet for Rick Ware Racing.

Joe Nemechek went for a wild ride inside 10 laps to go which took a well-earned top-15 finish to a miserable 34th place effort. Nemechek’s machine flipped over before landing back on all four wheels. The former Nationwide Series champion wanted to continue but damaged roof flaps forced him to park his NEMCO Motorsports machine in the garage.

Ken Butler III had another solid outing in the R3 Motorsports machine until he found the two turn wall in the Aaron’s Dream Machine. The damage took the former ARCA RE/MAX Series winner from contention and delivered a disappointing 37th place finish.

Jeremy Clements, last year’s winner in the ARCA RE/MAX Series wasn’t a factor in his first NNS start of the year with sway bar issues tackling his Jeremy Clements Racing away from the track and instead mounted a 39th place run.

Kertus Davis, Brian Keselowski, Terry Cook and Johnny Chapman comprised the remainder of the Nationwide 300 field.

After six events, Carl Edwards continues to lead Kyle Busch by 23 points heading into next Friday’s event at Phoenix International Raceway. David Ragan, Jason Leffler and Brad Keselowski make up the top-five in the standings.

In the top-20, Justin Allgaier and Kenny Wallace took the biggest blow in points with Allgaier in the No. 12 Verizon Wireless Dodge dropped two spots to seventh and Wallace three spots to 14th in the No. 28 US Border Patrol Chevrolet for Jay Robinson Racing.

If all goes according to the books, Logano did not cash in on Nationwide’s Dash-4-Cash in the first of four races where a full-time Nationwide driver could claim an extra $25,000.00 if he won the event. Logano is a full-time competitor in NASCAR’s premiere series but not the Nationwide series. Busch, however is and should he have won the Nashville 300, the Easter Bunny (a.k.a. Nationwide) would have delivered a nice present in his basket. Onwards as the next Dash-4-Cash event will take place at Kentucky Speedway in June.

The Bashas Supermarket 300 at Phoenix International Raceway is scheduled for Friday, April 17th with live coverage on ESPN2 beginning at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

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