DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — On a day when Joe Gibbs Racing looked destined to take their fourth-consecutive win as a team in the Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona Int’l Speedway, Team Penske had other plans.
Utilizing a huge push from Joey Logano on the final lap, Brad Keselowski charged to the inside of race-long dominator Denny Hamlin in turn one and looked as though he would take the run all the way to the finish line for the win.
However, Hamlin turned down to close the door and made contact with Keselowski in the corner, killing both cars’ momentum and opening the door for Logano to scoot by on the outside lane off the exit of turn two.
Logano went on to an easy victory as a huge gap opened up behind him, winning his first Clash by 1.121 seconds in his ninth appearance in the invitational event that highlights pole winners from the previous season.
The Middletown, Conn. becomes the 22nd driver to win the Clash in its 39-year history, and he said in victory lane that it was a team effort that broke up the dominance of the JGR Toyotas — which held the top four positions for nearly 20 laps in succession before Logano’s last-lap heroics.
“I knew the only way we were going to beat those Gibbs cars … they’re so good at being a team and the only way you can (beat them) is to break them up,” Logano explained. “You’ve got to be a better team than they are. We showed that Ford was the better team today. We were able to get ourselves up front and made the big move at the end.”
“It was kind of a situation of right place, right time. Brad was going to make the move and I was just going to try and follow him through, but when I saw the 11 (of Hamlin) coming down, I immediately went to the top because the writing was on the wall.”
Sunday also marked the third Clash win for team owner Roger Penske, the first Clash win for Ford since 2004 and the 10th time in Clash history that the event was decided on the final lap.
“It’s a momentum-builder; that’s what this is,” Logano said. “It knocks the rust off of everybody and you go out to try and have the best finish you can. What a great start for Team Penske here in Speedweeks … this is awesome and I can’t wait to try and convert this into a Daytona 500 pole.”
Qualifying for the 59th annual Daytona 500 kicks off at 3 p.m. ET, with Logano seeking his first-ever pole for ‘The Great American Race’.
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