Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford team took the lead late after contact with the No. 20 and went on to earn his second-straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory and his fifth of the season, winning the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday afternoon. Logano qualified an uncharacteristic 14th for the 267-lap event, but put on a show early, racing from 14th to third in the firsts 18 laps and eventually getting to second by lap 30. Once up front, Logano would become a top-three mainstay and took the top spot for the first time on lap 50. Logano held the lead until a round of pit stops on lap 66 and came out sixth after taking four tires while several other cars took two. It look Logano just 10 laps to work his way back to second and to begin chasing down the race leader. In the middle portion of the race, Logano was fighting a loose condition but was able to keep his Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion near the front all afternoon long thanks to quick stops on pit road and small adjustments from crew chief Todd Gordon. On a restart with 20 laps to go, Logano slotted into second and began chasing down race leader Matt Kenseth. Logano was able to close on the bumper of the No. 20 with 10 to go, but had to jump out of the gas as Kenseth blocked to keep his position. Logano then made another charge at Kenseth, getting to the outside of the No. 20 and again getting blocked, forcing the Shell-Pennzoil Ford into the outside wall. Despite the contact, Logano was able to keep momentum and dove into turn one under the No. 20 with the two making contact. Logano was able to steer clear and grab the lead once again. The 25-year-old driver then held off the rest of the field over a green-white-checkered finish, earning his second-straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory after taking the checkers last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It’s the first time in his career that Logano has won back-to-back races. It was also his second-straight win at Kansas Speedway in the fall event. With the victory, Logano now holds a 13-point lead in the Chase for the Sprint Cup point standings heading into next week’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.

“It was just hard racing out there. He (Kenseth) raced me really hard. I raced him the same way. He came up and started taking my air away, as he should, and I had to kind of adjust what I was doing and try to find a fast way back to him. I was able to get those runs back to him and got back to him. In the end, it was a lot of fun out there racing for a win like that. The cars were very fast, equally paired. I couldn’t be more proud of what this Shell-Pennzoil team is doing right now. We have such a fast race car, such a great team. We’ve showed it two weeks in a row now and this is a lot of fun. Our goal is to keep everyone on edge when they go into Talladega and we can feel comfortable about it, so I’m just proud of what this team is doing. I’d like to get to Homestead, but it’s one step at a time here. We’ve just got to keep this speed in our race cars and keep doing what we’re doing.”