Joey Logano led a total of 105 laps in the opening Stage of Wednesday’s Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway, and he cruised to the Stage win. Logano’s No. 22 was incredible straight off the truck, as he held a 5-second lead before the competition caution at lap 60, and had lapped up to the top-19 cars in the field.
In the end, Logano would have to hold off Clint Bowyer for the Stage 1 win, but he would have little trouble pulling it off.
Behind Logano and Bowyer was Jimmie Johnson in third.
Martin Truex Jr. was fourth and Bubba Wallace, who fainted multiple times following last week’s race at Atlanta, was fifth in Stage 1 in the No. 43 car.
Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Matt DiBenedetto and William Byron rounded out the top-10 in Stage 1 at Martinsville.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch have had issues early in this race.
Busch has been suffering from a brake caliper issue and sits 33rd, two laps down. While Hamlin has had a car that is overheating. Hamlin is 24th, one lap off the pace.
