It’s not common for the defending Cup Series champion to visit the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for a one-off, but when they do, it usually plays out in a similar fashion to Saturday’s Weather Guard Truck Race on Dirt.
Joey Logano, the winner of the inaugural Food City Dirt Race at Bristol, set out to gain additional experience on the half-mile dirt track ahead of Sunday’s event but says he really didn’t even learn anything.
That’s not because of an early accident, or even a mechanical issue, but rather the fact that the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion didn’t even get the opportunity to race anybody, leading a race-high 138 of 150 laps.
“I’m not sure I learned anything for tomorrow because I didn’t get to race a whole bunch, but it was fun leading all the laps,” Logano said in a post-race interview. “I had a great spotter up there in [Ryan] Blaney, he was up there spotting for me, and he kept it entertaining and light-hearted, and a little bit of fun too.”
Driving the No. 66 Ford F-150, a fifth entry for ThorSport Racing, Logano started Saturday’s 150-lap contest from fourth place, but was able to get his way into the lead by the second lap of the race, getting by teammate Ty Majeski.
From that point forward, the race belonged to Logano, only relinquishing the lead to Matt DiBenedetto for 11 laps, after the No. 25, along with Bret Holmes and Tanner Gray, played strategy to take the lead of the race after stage one.
However, the 32-time NASCAR Cup Series winner was the strongest truck all night long and would be able to blast away from the remainder of the field on the restarts, putting his Hang 10 Car Wash Ford F-150 far away from any competition.
After a restart with nine laps to go, Logano was able to hold off his ThorSport Racing teammate Ty Majeski to capture his second career victory in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, leading by 1.2 seconds at the end of the event.
Majeski would come home in the runner-up position, marking his fourth top-five result in the first six races of the season. William Byron, making his first start of 2023 with Kyle Busch Motorsports, came home in third.
Matt Crafton and Grant Enfinger, two of the most consistent figures in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on the dirt, finished fourth and fifth.
Jake Garcia continued an incredible stretch of results with a sixth-place result, his third top-10 finish in five starts this year. Chase Briscoe posted a seventh-place result for AM Racing in the No. 22, while Tanner Gray, Kaden Honeycutt, and Matt DiBenedetto completed the top-10.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Weather Guard Truck Race on Dirt Race Results
Race Results: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Weather Guard Truck Race on Dirt at Bristol
Leaving Bristol, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will travel to another half-mile track in Martinsville, Virginia, which is known as the only paperclip-shaped track, the historic Martinsville Speedway.
Ty Majeski holds a 34-point lead over Zane Smith in regular-season points, while Ben Rhodes, Matt Crafton, and Christian Eckes complete the top-five.
