Joey Logano won his second Toyota All-Star Showdown at the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night.
Logano, driving the Fadden Racing Toyota sponsored by The Home Depot, has won two of his three starts in this event. His first victory came in his break-out year as a 17-year old rooke in 2007.
Logano held off a serious challenge by 16-year old Sergio Pena of Winchester, VA. Logano and Pena, who finished second, battled throughout the 225 lap event, trading the lead a total of five times.
A junior in high school and a late model driver back in his home state of Virginia, Pena was making his first start in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series.
In qualifying on Friday night, Pena grabbed the pole position, driving for Revolution Racing and Drive For Diversity,.
Eddie MacDonald drove the Wayne County based Grimm Construction Chevrolet across the finish line in eighth place. MacDonald started the Showdown 17th position in a field of 40 cars.
Team owner Rob Grimm of Waymart flew to California early on Saturday morning to join the team. Grimm saw first hand what the small team from northeastern PA was up against.
“It was the most competitive field we have ever raced against,” said Grimm back at the race shop in Waymart on Monday morning. “There were great drivers from all over the country with real good equipment.”
The 225 lap event was divided into three segments. There were two 100 lap segments and one 25 lap sprint to the end. At the end of each segment was a ten minute pit stop for crew members to fuel, change tires, and make adjustments to the car.
MacDonald struggled in the first segment and dropped back to 22nd position. With feedback from MacDonald, crew chief Rollie LaChance and the crew made some adjustments to help the handling of the car.
The changes worked, and MacDonald began to pass cars. By lap 150 of the second segment, MacDonald had driven to 12th place. On lap 200, the Grimm Racing Chevrolet was in eighth place.
The last part of this event has a history of wild, exciting racing, and it looked like Saturday night was going to be no exception. After starting eighth in the final segment, MacDonald was caught up in some four-wide racing ahead of him and was shuffled back to 10th place.
With 10 laps to go in the event, a multi-car crash brought out the red flag. As track personnel cleared the track, MacDonald waited for the track to go back to green in 10th place.
