Joey Logano passes Kyle Larson late to take XFINITY win at CMS

By foxsports
Published

Joey Logano won the rain-delayed XFINITY Series Chase elimination race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, passing Kyle Larson on a late restart en route to victory in the Drive for the Cure 300.

Logano's win put the cap on Sunday's rare NASCAR doubleheader that became a necessity because of heavy rain from Hurricane Matthew earlier in the weekend.

And while Logano won, most of the drama in the race was produced by drivers trying to advance to the next round of the inaugural XFINITY Series Chase to the championship.

Darrell Wallace Jr., for instance, finished three laps down in 20th place after encountering early trouble that left his No. 6 Roush Fenway Ford heavily damaged. But he ran hard to get there, and in the end it proved good enough to allow him to advance to the next round of the Chase by a single point.

Finishing one point behind Wallace on the wrong side of the Chase cutoff was Ty Dillon, one of four drivers eliminated from the playoffs. The others were Brennan Poole, Ryan Seig and Brandon Jones.

Dillon was considered a possible title contender heading into the Chase but didn't even make it out of the first round.

"We were terrible today and didn't give ourselves much of a shot. ... Man, it's heartbreaking," Dillon said.

Sprint Cup regular Kyle Larson dominated most of the race until Logano bested him on the final restart with only a dozen laps remaining.

"He was really fast," fellow Cup regular Logano said of Larson, who led a race-high 165 laps of 200. "I knew my only chance was to pass him on a restart. ... I knew that was my one shot."

XFINITY Chasers Elliott Sadler and Daniel Suarez finished second and third, respectively. Larson ended up brushing the wall down the stretch and fell to fourth by the finish, with another XFINITY Chase, Erik Jones, rounding out the top five and moving onto the next round of the series playoffs.

"It's good to get through and go to the next round with a clean slate," Jones said.

The points will be re-set for the next round, with the eight drivers still in the Chase all starting even.