Logano Overpowers Gordon in Texas Victory

Joey Logano had the best car in the sun. Jeff Gordon had track position.

Guess which one turned out to be the hot ticket in the rain-delayed Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway?

Logano powered past Gordon off Turn 4 coming down for the white flag and made the pass into Turn 1 to win the race, becoming the seventh different winner in as many NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races this season. It was Logano's fourth career victory in the series and first on a 1.5-mile track.

“I felt very confident about this race," Logano said in Victory Lane. "For some reason I told [crew chief] Todd Gordon, ‘We’re gonna win this week,’ and I was mad when we didn’t get the pole, but I felt like we had a car that could win this thing today.  At the beginning we didn’t, and then Todd and the guys made good adjustments and had good stops all day.  And that one longer run I came through and was able to drive up to fifth and get some cautions to be able to get our track position up towards the front.  

"Clean air means everything, so, heck yeah."

Logano had the race won after 334 laps, or so it appeared. He was within sight of the white flag when the caution waved for the exploding left rear tire on Kurt Busch's car, which froze the field and forced overtime.

He led the lead-lap cars down pit road and took four tires, while Gordon, Brian Vickers and others took only two. That put him third on the restart and cost him a wingman, as teammate Brad Keselowski got nailed for speeding.

On the restart, Gordon got a decent jump, but Logano was just too strong.

Kyle Busch pushed through the final two laps to take third, the top Toyota, while Vickers and rookie Kyle Larson rounded out the top five. Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Paul Menard and Stewart rounded out the top 10.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. lasted just two laps under green, clipping the infield grass and destroying the front end of his Chevrolet. The debris from that crash also caught teammate Jimmie Johnson, whose day was ruined with a broken windshield and front-end damage. Earnhardt Jr., the point leader coming in, finished last and Johnson wound up 25th.

Kevin Harvick lost an engine early on and finished 42nd.

Gordon assumed the point lead after the race, heading to Darlington.