Duck Commander 500 Recap: Joey Logano Takes the Checkered Flag
Joey Logano took the checkered flag today at the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. The race was originally scheduled to run Sunday, but was delayed to a noon start today due to heavy rain. The race featured a nail-biting finish. Jeff Gordon came in second, Kyle Busch in third and Brian Vickers in fourth position.
Joey Logano had expressed concerns about the tires going into the race, according to an NBC Sports report.
Today’s Duck Commander 500 featured early exits for favorites Dale Earnhardt Jr., who crashed into the wall of the first turn in lap 13, and Kevin Harvick, who was in fourth position when his car experienced engine failure. You can read about the Earnhardt crash here.
The Duck Commander 500 is the 7th race in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series.
Joey Logano, eighth in the point standings going into today’s Duck Commander 500, took the lead in lap 225. The Duck Commander 500 had its seventh caution flag with a lap and a half to go after Kurt Busch hit the wall, adding extra drama. Pit crews that had already started to leave, expecting the white flag, scrambled back onto pit row to give their drivers a chance to pick up position on leader Joey Logano. Keselowshi lost his position doe to leaving put row too fast.
Comng out of the caution, Joey Logano lost the lead to Jeff Gordon, who was driving a Texas A&M car in honor of the Aggies according to Yahoo! Sports, falling back to third place behind Gordon and Vickers. Gordon got a good jump on the pack out of the caution, but Logano made a strong move to take the lead and the checkered flag.
The Duck Commander 500 has been the first foray into a NASCAR Event sponsorship for Duck Commander, the duck call company made famous by the A&E series Duck Dynasty. Duck Commander Phil Robertson has brought controversy on himself in the past year with controversial comments regarding homosexuality and his Christian faith. His comments don’t seem to have negatively affected the Duck Commander brand, either with duck call sales or NASCAR fans.
Joey Logano’s win at the Duck Commander 500 continues the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ parity, with seven different winners for the season’s first seven races.
Duck Commander, who is also sponsoring Shreveport, Louisiana’s Independence Bowl this year, is slated to sponsor the annual race at Texas Motor Speedway for at least the next three years.
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