Concord, NC – Joey Logano claimed his eighth Nationwide Series win of the season by taking Friday night's Dollar General 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Logano, who is a Sprint Cup Series regular, took command after a round of green-flag pit stops late in the 300-mile race. He pitted from the lead with 15 laps remaining but reclaimed the top spot with eight laps to go. He crossed the finish line 2.7 seconds ahead of his closest competitor, Kevin Harvick.
Brad Keselowski was Logano's biggest challenger throughout the race, but Keselowski did not top off with enough fuel during his final stop and ran out of gas with four laps left.
"The 22 (Keselowski) was really good throughout the race, and he made some good adjustments," Logano said. "I found a new line, and we were able to make this (car) fast enough to win."
Logano has now scored 17 wins during his Nationwide career, including his first at Charlotte. He led the most laps in this race with 62.
"I'm just glad to get these guys (No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team) to victory lane one more time, and we still got a few more left," he added.
Keselowski, who led a total of 52 laps, pitted again for a splash of gas but received a penalty for speeding onto pit road. He ended up finishing two laps behind in 18th. He won the spring Nationwide race at this 1.5-mile racetrack in May
"We had a car to win, but we just didn't have any gas there at the end," Keselowski said.
Elliott Sadler's third-place finish coupled with a seventh-place run for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., allowed Sadler to increase his points lead from nine to 13 over Stenhouse.
"It was a good run for us," said Sadler, who started on the pole. "Any time you gain points on your competitors, we can call this a good night."
During the fifth and final caution on lap 134, Stenhouse was held up in his pit area and lost valuable track position. He entered the pits in third but exited in 10th. Stenhouse ran in front for 34 laps prior to that stop.
"We just made a mistake on that pit stop," Stenhouse said. "We'll just keep pushing forward. We'll come back and get them. There's four races left, and that's a lot of time."
Kansas (Oct. 20), Texas (Nov. 3), Phoenix (Nov. 10) and Homestead (Nov. 17) are the remaining races on the Nationwide schedule.
Kyle Busch finished fourth, followed by Denny Hamlin, and rookie Austin Dillon, who is now 29 points behind Sadler.
Brian Scott, James Buescher and Michael Annett finished eighth through 10th, respectively. Danica Patrick was 11th.
Sam Hornish Jr.'s 35th-place finish put him 93 points out of the lead. Hornish and Justin Allgaier hit the wall after making contact in the opening laps. Both drivers spent a majority of the race behind the wall for repairs. Allgaier wound up finishing 34th.
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