Team Penske dominated the XFINITY Series weekend in Watkins Glen. They were quickest in each of the practice sessions on Friday. On Saturday qualified first and second. The race was no different. Team Penske led all but three of the 82 laps even though both drivers had penalties on pit road. In the end it was Joey Logano who outlasted Brad Keselowski.
Logano had never won a road course in any series until Saturday. This was the first time that the No. 12 had raced all season long. Team Penske grabbed guys from within the shop to fulfill the roster spots open to field the car. This team was able to overcome a Lap 20 pit road penalty when the gas can was dragged outside of the pit box.
“It shows the depth of Team Penske,” Logano said. “The way that they can throw a second team together like they did so quickly and have two equal cars out there it’s truly incredible. It’s good to get my first road course win whether it’s on this side or the Cup side.”
The aforementioned Keselowski finished just behind his teammate. The No. 22 led 40 laps on the afternoon, one more than the race winner. On Lap 53, Keselowski was caught speeding leaving pit road. But, his car was just too fast to keep him back. In 10 laps and a restart later he was up to the second position.
“We had an up-and-down day,” said Keselowski. “Joey was just so fast. I made a mistake leaving pit road and finally figured it out which is good for Sunday. All in all, Joey was a tad bit quicker than us and I made a few too many mistakes.”
In 2013, Keselowski won the XFINITY Series race at Watkins Glen. Every year that NASCAR makes its visit to the road course, Team Penske, specifically Keselowski is always near the top of the leader board. On the Sprint Cup Series side, Keselowski and his No. 2 team has finished in the top three in three of the past four races at the Glen. However, winning is everything for the driver.
Championship leader, Chris Buescher finished third. Though he never led a lap he extended his points lead to 24 over both Chase Elliott and Ty Dillon. Over the past two years Buescher has proved that he can get it done on a road course.
“The car made it home in one piece,” Buescher said. “The car we have for next weekend at Mid-Ohio will be stout, and I’m happy with the weekend that we had.”
Road course specialist Boris Said finished fourth and the aforementioned Dillon rounded out the top five.
Dillon was the main focus of the race. On a Lap 39 restart, the No. 3 made contact with Regan Smith in Turn 1 to take over the second position. Both of these drivers are running for the championship and every point is critical in the XFINITY Series as there is no Chase for the championship.
Smith then made it back to tenth before getting taken out by another Richard Childress Racing car on Lap 65. This time it was Brendan Gaughan who spun the No. 7 out. This was the incident that really took Smith out of contention. He finished 20th on the afternoon.
After the race Smith went up to Gaughan’s window and they talked things out. But, then he went up to Dillon and all hell broke loose.
Smith got his hands on Dillon and it took roughly six NASCAR officials to break the two up. The New York native felt that he was done wrong and he wanted to let his weekly competition know about it.
“We got taken out by the No. 3” Smith said. “I’m racing for my job. It’s disappointing with that happened over there (Turn 1) , but maybe they’ll give him another crew chief and learn how to go into a braking zone. The first two he’s had aren’t working and they’ve won with his brother. We may have lost the championship today, but I can assure you he did as well.”
With the disappointing finish Smith now sits fourth in the standings but 50 markers outside of the championship lead.
With all of the controversy that surrounded this race, there were 36 pit road penalties. The 36 penalties was a series-high in the XFINITY Series this season.
The XFIINTY Series will head to the road course of Mid-Ohio next week where there will certainly be more fender banging.
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