Logano rules the Glen, Busch hits top 30

For the second straight week, Joey Logano found himself in the middle of a fuel-mileage battle on the road course at Watkins Glen International. Unlike last week, where he ran out of gas while leading, Logano was the beneficiary when the driver he was chasing saw his fuel cell expire before the finish line.
When Kevin Harvick couldn’t get through the final two turns of the final lap at speed, Logano drove by him and earned his second win of the season in the Cheez-It 355 as well as first for Penske Racing on the 2.45-mile track in the Finger Lakes region of western New York.
Logano’s win set a new standard at the Glen as he started from 16th. It ranked as the second-deepest starting position only to Steve Park, who qualified 18th before winning the Global Crossing at the Glen in 2000.
Logano became the seventh different driver with multiple wins in 2015 – the Daytona 500 was the other win for the 22 – but that wasn’t the full story of the race. With Kyle Busch coming home second, he officially arrived in the top 30 in points and would now be eligible for the Chase.
Notice we said “would” here, and it’s with good reason. Busch may have completed NASCAR’s last requirement to join the field that will run for the 2015 Sprint Cup championship, but there are two big problems still to overcome.
First, Busch is in 30th place, but only six points in front of Cole Whitt. That’s far from a secure margin with only four races left to run. He gained 19 points with his effort Sunday.
Second, the series hits Michigan International Speedway this weekend for the Pure Michigan 400. When they last raced there in June, Busch crashed after only 52 laps and finished 43rd.
If there’s one screw-up between now and Richmond on Sept. 12, Busch will be right back where he started from, on the outside looking in. There are no more mulligans left.
And don’t think for a moment the five drivers with zeroes in the win column who would fill out the Chase field if it started today – Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard, Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman and Clint Bowyer – aren’t going to go after checkered flags themselves.
Should we get a non-winner or two in the next four race weeks, it will only add to the pressure for Busch to keep pace. Last year, only three non-winners made the Chase field and one – Newman – came within a half-second of winning the title.
With Busch’s arrival in the top 30, it bumped Aric Almirola off the Chase grid. Anything can, and probably will, happen between now and Richmond, so stay tuned.

-The XFINITY race from Watkins Glen had some interesting emotion at the finish. While Logano got his weekend off to a fine start with a win at the Zippo 200, there were fireworks afterwards as Regan Smith confronted Ty Dillon for an on-track incident that pushed him down to a 20th-place finish after he qualified 8th.

When asked about what happened by MRN Radio's Steve Post, Smith said three simple words. 

"He dumped me."

Then Smith got into what amounted to only a shoving match combined with a few angry stares. Dillon ended up fifth and sits tied for second in the standings with Chase Elliott while Smith slipped to 33 points behind the pair.

That's how much a difference one incident can make. With the series running on road courses in the next two races, it's going to be interesting to see when payback comes.

-As for Park City's Michael Self, his second XFINITY race had nearly the same fate as the first. Self qualified 21st, but lost his transmission after only 33 of the 82 laps. He finished 37th.

Tom Zulewski welcomes new followers and comments on Twitter @Tomzsports.

NEXT WEEK'S RACES

Michigan International Speedway (2-mile superspeedway), Brooklyn, Michigan

-SPRINT CUP: Pure Michigan 400, Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 400 miles, 200 laps.

2014 champion: Jeff Gordon

-CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES: Careers for Veterans 200 presented by Cooper Standard and Brad Keselowski's Checkered Flag Foundation, Saturday, 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, Fox Sports 1. Radio SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 200 miles, 100 laps.

2014 champion: Johnny Sauter

-XFINITY SERIES: Nationwide Children's Hospital 200 at Mid-Ohio, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (2.4-mile road course), Lexington, Ohio, Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT, NBC Sports Network. Radio: SiriusXM Channel 90 or your local MRN Radio affiliate.

Race distance: 216 miles, 90 laps.

2014 champion: Chris Buescher.