Talladega, AL (SportsNetwork.com) - Joey Logano claimed his third win of the season in the Xfinity Series after holding off Brian Scott, Austin Dillon and Chris Buescher on the final lap in Saturday's Winn-Dixie 300 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Logano, driving the No. 22 Ford for Team Penske, led a race-high 40 laps, including the final four, at this 2.66-mile superspeedway.
Scott, Dillon and Buescher all battled Logano, a Sprint Cup Series regular, for the lead on the final lap, but Logano was able to block each one of them during their attempts to pass him.
Logano beat Scott to the finish line by 0.13 seconds for his 24th career Xfinity win, including his second at Talladega. He won here in 2012 when he drove a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
"It's such a combination of the old school draft and the cars hooking up and bumping," Logano said. "It's so intense out there, and your mind is looking at everything in the mirror the whole time. It's cool to be in victory lane."
Logano has finished no worse than second in five Xfinity starts this season. He won at Phoenix in March and Bristol last month.
It was the fourth time Scott has finished in the runner-up spot in a Xfinity race. He is still seeking his first victory in the series.
"I wanted it so bad," Scott said. "The top-four (runners on the final lap) broke away like they were pushing each other, and I just couldn't quite get there."
Dillon, the pole sitter, crossed the line in third, followed by J.J. Yeley and Joey Gase, who scored his first career top-10 finish in the series.
Buescher ran side-by-side with Logano for the lead when they completed the penultimate lap, but Buescher got shuffled back in the pack while riding in the outside lane and ended up finishing sixth.
"We were close," Buescher said. "It's a product of this racing. (Logano) moved up and blocked me when I had that final run that I needed there at the end. I just couldn't do anything with it."
Elliott Sadler, who won this race one year ago, finished seventh, while Ty Dillon, the current points leader, Regan Smith and Aric Almirola completed the top-10.
This 300-mile race featured two major crashes, with the first one happening on the frontstretch on lap 73, involving 10 cars. The second big wreck also occurred on the frontstretch on lap 98, as seven cars were involved in that incident.
During the lap 73 accident, Brendan Gaughan's No. 62 car slammed into the pit wall, and the impact caught two crew members from Almirola's No. 98 Biagi- DenBeste Racing team. One of the crew members was transported to a nearby hospital for further observation, while the other was treated and released in the track's infield medical care center. Their identities were not released.
That crash happened while a pack of cars were attempting to pit during a round of green-flag stops. It appeared that rookie Daniel Suarez was hit from behind and got turned sideways while he had slowed down before the entrance to pit road.
"I don't know if some guys don't pay attention or don't realize it, but when you're pitting and start sliding up, get the hell out of the way and let those guys get down (on to pit road)," Gaughan said after the incident. "At Talladega, it's easy to get on to pit road. Just get out of the way. When people don't get out of the way or if people try to come from the outside then chaos happens."
Ty Dillon now holds a nine-point lead over Buescher. Chase Elliott, the defending Xfinity champion, fell 37 points behind Dillon after he was involved in a single-car accident on lap 39. Elliott was leading the race when he had a cut right-front tire and made contact with the wall. He spent nearly 30 laps behind the wall for repairs and wound up finishing 37th.
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