• Saturday, April 8th, 2023
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Joey Logano dominates NASCAR Truck Series race on Bristol Dirt

Moonlighting in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series on Saturday night, Joey Logano performed the perfect Bristol Stomp in winning the Weather Guard Truck Race on Dirt.

The reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion swept the first two stages of the race at Bristol Motor Speedway's Dirt Track, led 138 of the 150 laps and crossed the finish line 1.241 seconds ahead of ThorsSport Racing teammate Ty Majeski.

"My fun meter was pegged tonight," said Logano, who won the second Truck Series race of his career. "I had a lot of fun out here racing at Bristol. The dirt's a lot of fun. 

"Hopefully, tomorrow is just as good with the other car."

Logano will start 12th in his No. 22 NASCAR Cup Series car in Sunday's Food City Dirt Race at the half-mile track. He won the inaugural Cup Series dirt race at Bristol in 2021.

Majeski ran a strong second but was no match for his teammate.

"He's a two-time Cup champion for a reason," Majeski said. "Just happy we got ThorSport in Victory Lane. ThorSport deserves to be in Victory Lane—just wish it was us. Just one spot short.

"Overall, he was just better than us tonight. I thought maybe at times, if we would have had a long run, I might have been able to match him or at least make him nervous. Just wasn't in the cards for us."

Long runs were not the order of the day. The race was punctuated by 11 cautions for 64 laps, as trucks rubbed fenders, cut tires and spun on the slick clay surface with predictable frequency. Out front for virtually the entire race, Logano avoided the chaos behind him.

"They gave me a great race truck," said Logano, who pressed Team Penkse teammate Ryan Blaney into service as his spotter. "We qualified good in the heat race and were able to drive to the lead pretty early in the race and were pretty much able to control it.

"I'm not sure we learned anything for (Sunday), because I didn't get to race a whole bunch, but it was fun leading all those laps. I had a great spotter up there in Blaney. He kept me entertained and light-hearted and a (was) a whole lot of fun, too."

William Byron, a two-time Cup winner this season, ran third in the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Chevrolet. Matt Crafton was fourth, followed by Grant Enfinger, Jake Garcia, Chase Briscoe, Tanner Gray, Kaden Honeycutt and Matt DiBenedetto.

Dirt late model ace Jonathan Davenport finished 14th, one spot behind Hailie Deegan, who ran as high as third during the early stages of the race.

Majeski leads the series standings by 34 points over defending champion Zane Smith, who was collected in a three-truck accident on Lap 95 and finished 21st.