DARLINGTON, SC
Logano hit Byron in the back on the penultimate lap to win a Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday. Byron hit the wall in the third corner and Logano continued on to his first win of the season and first on the Too Tough To Tame track.
“There’s something to be said for an angry race car driver,” said Logano, who overcame 40 races without a drought.
Logano, who started from the pole, had one of the strongest cars of the day and was ahead, coming out of the pits before the restart with the remaining 25 laps. But Byron, who started low, forced Logano into the wall and out of the lead.
“If anyone wants to do this to you, then the gloves are off,” Logano said.
Byron was unhappy with the maneuver, calling Logan an “idiot” and an “idiot” who competed with others dubiously throughout his career.
Fans in Darlington have informed the Team Penske driver to know what he thinks, whistling to the 2018 NASCAR champion when he got out of his car.
“They called me a lot of things, much worse than a fool,” Logano said.
Byron, who signed an extension to Hendrick Motorsports, looked set to maintain his team’s dominant season in recent laps. Instead, Logano broke the land without winning 40 races.
Tyler Reddick was second, followed by Justin Haley, Kevin Harwick, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Michael McDowell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dylan and Daniel Suarez.
Byron fell to 13th place. He said the restart was just a close race and Byron didn’t deserve a heavy blow to the rear bumper so close to the end.
“He hit me so hard that he knocked down the entire right side of the car and sent me into a corner,” Byron said. “He’s just a fool. He can’t win a race, so he does it that way.”
Logano led in 108 of the 293 laps and reached Victory Lane for the first time since winning the Bristol Tert in 2021.
This was the first time the next-generation new car had climbed NASCAR’s oldest super-speed track, and the results were mixed. The race was strong, although some of the best riders did not last until the end.
The reigning NASCAR champion Kyle Larson dropped out due to engine damage after 112 laps. Former champions Kyle Bush and Brad Keselowski also dropped out well before the final.
FAVORITE ODDS Odds ?: Larson was the favorite to bet on winning for the first time in Darlington. But the defending Cup champion continued his bad luck on NASCAR’s oldest super-speed track. Larson, who started second, led 30 of the first 32 laps before turning into 54 laps and falling to 29th.
Larson made his way into the top 10 early in the second round before returning to the pits, where his crew opened the lid. They couldn’t start the car again – “I don’t seem to have the power,” Larson told them – and they rolled him into the garage.
It was such a stretch for Larson, who was second in his last three races in Darlington. At a tire test here last month, Larson hit the wall twice earlier.
This is the fourth time in 12 races this season that Larson is absent before the end.
“Great,” Larson said. “But the positive thing is that we were really fast.”
PARKING SPACE: Kyle Bush’s day is over after he couldn’t avoid bumping into Brad Keselowski after a Roush Fenway racer marked the wall right in front of Bush. Disappointed, Bush drove his car to the pit road and left it there, getting into his trailer.
A tow truck had to hitch the Joe Gibbs Racing machine and move it to the garage. Bush led 19 laps at the start of the race.
Last year, Bush was fined $ 50,000 by NASCAR when he drove his damaged car into the garage on the Southern 500, knocking down several cones and causing people on the road to disperse quickly.
Bush was asked why he stopped where he did. “I just couldn’t make the corner,” he said.
TOP NEXT: The series moves to Kansas Speedway, where Kyle Bush is defending the event’s championship. Kyle Larson won the October race in Kansas.
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