Joey Logano scored his first win of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season in the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway Sunday (4/29) afternoon.
The NASCAR race at the track called “Dega” by the fans was fairly tame compared to races in the past. There were only six caution periods including the two at the end of the first and second stages of the race. Brad Keseloski was the leader at the end of the first stage and Paul Menard was the leader at the end of stage two.
The track that often produces accidents that can leave the end of the race with just a couple of handfuls of cars on the lead lap only saw a couple of multi-car wrecks. The first, by “Dega” standards, was barely a brush-up involving just six cars. The second would qualify as “the big one” as it involved a total of 14 cars to some degree.
During the race 16 drivers did exchange the lead 25 times. Throughout the race Joey Logano was either at the front or near the front almost all the time. Joey led a race high 70 laps in the 188 lap contest. Of course the most important lap to lead is the last one and Joey was in position number one on that lap to collect his third win at Talladega Superspeedway and his first win of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Kurt Busch followed Joey across the finish line to claim second place. Chase Elliott finished in third place and Kevin Harvick claimed a fourth place finish. Last year’s winner of this race Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top five in this year’s race. See the complete race results for the GEICO 500 here.
Kyle Busch holds steady at the top of the point standings as Joey also stays put in second place. Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick swap spots again as Kevin moves back up to third with Clint slipping back to fourth. Kurt Busch moves into the top five taking over fifth place. See the complete Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series point standings here.
This week the NASCAR drivers and teams will head to “The Monster Mile.” The AAA 400 Drive for Autism will take place Sunday afternoon, April 6th at Dover International Speedway.
By: Buck Stevens
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