NEWTON, Iowa -- Joey Logano won a last gasp shootout against the best in the business and captured victory in the Featherlite Coaches 200 at Iowa Speedway.
Logano beat NASCAR Nextel Series star Kevin Harvick as the pair charged around the 7/8-mile oval in the race for the NASCAR Grand National Division. Harvick was less than 24 hours removed from winning the Nextel All-Star Challenge.
The Iowa winner will celebrate his 17th birthday later in May and called the victory the biggest of his career.
“We were wheeling it,” Logano said of the final laps. “There was plenty of grip. We ran the heck out of those tires.”
Goodyear is the exclusive tire provider for the Grand National Division, which includes the Busch East Series and the West Series. Chad Fletcher, Goodyear operations manager, said the tire combination developed for the Iowa track gave teams the opportunity to choose a range of different pit strategies.
“The package that we brought here worked well with the racing surface at Iowa Speedway,” Fletcher said. “The tire performance was excellent. The leader turned a lap less than a second slower than the pole speed on lap 198, when his tires had about half a race on them.”
Logano pitted for tires and fuel shortly after the halfway point of the race.
Harvick, a former champion of the West Series, finished second. He was followed by Jesus Hernandez, Johnny Borneman and Mike Duncan. Because the race was a combination event for both series, Harvick was officially credited with a West Series victory. Logano was credited with a Busch East win.
Justin Lofton finished sixth. Brett Thompson, Jeff Anton, Eric Richardson and Tim McCreadie finished the top 10. There were 42 starters, but 53 cars tried to make the field.
Hernandez, who started 23rd, said, “Towards the end of the race, we had the best balance in the car that we had for the whole race.”
Harvick started on the pole and he spent much of the day exchanging the lead with Logano. They traded the lead 15 times. There were a total 18 lead changes and 19 cars finished on the lead lap.
The race drew a record crowd, as 24,741 fans jammed the sun-drenched venue.
