NASCAR: Talladega Xfinity Series results in 3 minutes

Joey Logano won a wreck-filled Winn Dixie 300 Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday. The race produced at least three “big ones” – major accidents that occur at NASCAR’s biggest tracks (Talladega and Daytona).

Brian Scott finished second, .13 seconds behind Logano. Pole-winner Austin Dillon was third.

Turning point

Logano led for several laps during the middle portion of the race but fell back after a wreck scrambled the field. He made his way back to the front but wasn’t in control until he was able to block Chris Buescher on the last lap. That moved gave Logano the victory.

Three who mattered

Joey Logano: Logano, who isn’t eligible for the Xfinity title because he’s a fulltime Sprint Cup driver, has won 24 Xfinity races (three this season) in 140 career starts. That’s better than a one-in-seven pace.

Joey Gase: Fifth-place finish is first top-10 of career for 22-year-old driver from Iowa. His previous best was 11th in 2014, also at Talladega.

Aric Almirola: An ill-advised decision to head to pit road from an outside line caused a big wreck. Almirola drove through it unscathed and finished 10th.

Observations

▪ Another pit road incident this week for the Xfinity series (there was a fire during the race last week at Bristol), when Brendan Gaughan’s car slammed into the pit wall and injured two members of Aric Almirola’s team, who were preparing to service Almirola’s car. One of the crew members was taken to the hospital for treatment.

▪  Ty Dillon started second and wasn’t much of a factor in the end (although he led 26 laps during one point), but he maintains his points lead by nine over Buescher, who finished sixth.

▪  Good to see a driver like Gase from a limited-resources team do well. He said he hopes somebody notices how well he drove Saturday and might offer some financial assistance.

They said it

“When (your spotter says), ‘Wrecking behind you,’ you say ‘phew!’ ” – Third-place finisher Austin Dillon, who was in front of a big accident on Lap 74.

This story was originally published May 2, 2015 at 7:07 PM with the headline "NASCAR: Talladega Xfinity Series results in 3 minutes."