Joey Logano had wasted enough shots at winning Dover to feel like he was on the brink of doing it again.
Out in front for most of the race, Logano fell back after a four-tire pit stop, paving the way for Ryan Truex to take the lead.
Back in the pack, Logano wondered if he’d blown another win in Deleware.
“I was thinking the same thing was happening today,” Logano said. “It figures.”
Logano instead powered his way to the lead with six laps to go when Truex got mired in lapped traffic on Saturday to win the Nationwide Series race at Dover International Speedway.
“When you lead it and you think you gave it away, and then you get it back there at the end,” Logano said, “that’s exciting.”
Truex started from the pole and raced for the first time since he needed an appendectomy nearly two weeks ago. He had the top car toward the end of the race until he got loose with less than 10 laps remaining. Logano capitalized and made the late charge outside through a pair of lapped drivers to zip past Truex for his fourth Nationwide win this year.
Truex finished second and Brian Scott third for a 1-2-3 finish for Joe Gibbs Racing.
MARTIN TAKES POLE
Mark Martin has more poles than candles on his birthday cake.
Not bad for a driver pushing limits in a stock car long after so many elite athletes have settled into retirement.
Martin took the last qualifying ride of the day and turned a lap of 158.297 mph to win the pole for today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Dover.
The 53-year-old Martin won his 54th career pole in the No. 55 Toyota.
He has three poles this season in 10 races in a limited schedule for Michael Waltrip Racing. He’s looking for his first victory in NASCAR’s top series since 2009.
Points leader Greg Biffle of Vancouver, Wash., will start seventh, and Enumclaw’s Kasey Kahne qualified 13th. Kahne won the Coca-Cola 600 last week in Concord, N.C.
PIT STOPS
Scott Dixon won his first pole of the year for the Detroit Grand Prix, snapping Penske Racing’s streak of having the fastest IndyCar qualifier this season. Dixon clocked a Belle Isle track record of 1 minute, 10.3162 seconds. Penske’s Will Power, the IndyCar points leader, will start today’s race alongside Dixon in the front row. … Ron Capps grabbed center stage at the NHRA SuperNationals, posting a time of 3.94 seconds at 320.89 mph, the quickest Funny Car run in association history, to claim his first No. 1 qualifying position of the season for today’s race in Englishtown, N.J.
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