Joey Logano celebrates his second Toyota All-Star Showdown victory. Photo by Anne Cypress.
Irwindale, Ca – The East met the West in a battle of All-Star drivers from the K&N Filters series at a sold-out Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.
After a controversial finish last season that saw Joey Logano get disqualified from first after spinning Peyton Sellers on the final lap, Logano vindicated himself by winning the 2010 Toyota All-Star Showdown.
It was Logano’s second victory in the Showdown and joins Matt Kobyluck as the only two-time winner of the race.
Logano used his ability to beat second-place finisher Sergio Pena on the final re-start on lap 218 as he was able to get a two-car lead heading into the second turn.
“I kept spinning the tires on my re-starts,” said Pena. “We will go back to Mooresville, NC and work on that to improve on it.”
Pena, who won the ride for Revolutionary Racing and the Drive for Diversity program on Thursday evening, was strong all evening and gave Logano all he could handle during the short runs. He had to defeat fellow Diversity Program drivers in a 50-lap S-2 race on Thursday evening.
The only two leaders through-out the night were Logano and Pena who at times put a good one-second lead on the rest of the pack.
Joey Logano (25) and Sergio Pena (4) battled all night in the Showdown. Photo by Anne Cypress.
For the first 100 laps it appeared that NASCAR Sprint driver David Gilliland would be the one to beat as he was pushing Logano and Pena for the lead.
After the break was a different story as Gilliland was out right after the 100 lap break with an electrical problem.
The next set of 100 laps saw Pena finally wrestle the lead away from Logano in the opening of the second session. Logano and Pena would see-saw the lead back in forth as they would exchange positions.
The final 25-lap shoot-out actually became a seven-lap race when Michael Self spun hard into the turn three wall and a 15-minute red-flag ensued. Self was taken to a local area hospital for observation.
Logano took the lead on the re-start and was never really threatened the final seven laps. Kobyluck made one attempt at Logano and Pena at the beginning of the re-start but was too tight entering the corners and couldn’t get freed up the final laps.
- Joey Logano – NASCAR Sprint (East)
- Sergio Pena – (East)
- Matt Kobyluck – (East)
- Matt DiBenedetto – (East)
- Andrew Meyers – (West)
- Eric Holmes – (West)
- David Mayhew – (East)
- Eddie MacDonald – (West)
- Paulie Harraka – (West)
- Steve Park – (East)
NASCAR WHELEN LATE MODEL 75
Tim Huddleston and High Point Racing celebrate Late Model Win. Photo by Anne Cypress.
In race shortened to just 55 laps after a six-car pile-up that made the speedway look more like the 210 freeway during rush hour, Tim Huddleston the Whelen Late Model Showdown race.
The red-flag came out on the 37th lap as Eric Schmidt, Ricky James, Christian Copley, Trevor Schlundt, Darren Cheek, and George Atkinson Jr were all piled up on the front stretch after someone missed a shift on the re-start.
It didn’t take Huddleston long to get the lead in the race as he over-took teammate Rod Johnson Jr. on the eleventh lap re-start.
The race was marred by four yellow-flag cautions and a red-flag that halted the races for 28 minutes for the lap 37 mess.
Sean Woodside returned after a long absence from racing at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale with a second place. Reigning Late Model Champion Nick Joanides finished in third.
- Tim Huddleston
- Sean Woodside
- Nick Joanides
- Mike Johnson
- Dallas Colodny
- Travis Irving
- Mike Self
- Grant Hebner
- Jason Hensler
- Kenny Smith
More photos from last night and Friday nights races at cypresstreephotos.printroom.com will be available later this afternoon.
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