Joey Logano drove through often-thick dust and numerous fender-benders within it to win NASCAR’s first Cup Race on a dirt track since 1970. The .533-mile oval at Bristol had been covered with 23,000 cubic yards (about 30,000 tons) of dirt and clay for the event, which was pushed back to Monday by heavy rains Sunday.
Logano led the last 61 laps of the 253-lap race and held off Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who put together a late-race charge, by a little more than half a second. He is the seventh winner in the first seven races of the NASCAR year.
Competitors at times were mostly blind because of thick dust and the glare of the setting sun as the race wound down and the sun began to set.
Series points leader Denny Hamlin was third, his sixth top-five finish in the first seven races. He’s still searching for his first win of 2021.