NNS Homestead Update: Logano leads race, Hornish leads championship - MotorSportsTalk

At the halfway point of tonight’s season finale for the NASCAR Nationwide Series, Sam Hornish Jr. had a narrow lead in the driver’s championship as Austin Dillon – the points leader going into the race – dealt with handling problems that was preventing him from charging to the front.

Hornish, the pole sitter for today’s race, led the opening lap and was able to gain a critical bonus point on Dillon, who started 11th at the green flag. The Penske Racing trio of Hornish, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano (who is competing for the NNS owner’s championship today in the No. 22 car against the No. 54 of Kyle Busch) quickly settled into the top three spots early, while Busch and Kyle Larson followed in pursuit.

Larson and Busch managed to both get by Keselowski around Lap 15, while Dillon was only able to make minimal progress in the opening laps (moving up one spot to 10th by Lap 20) before falling back several positions with a loose No. 3 Chevy.

Meanwhile, Larson continued his rise as he passed Logano for second at Lap 33 before setting his sights on Hornish for the lead a few laps later. And on Lap 39, the future driver of Earnhardt Ganassi Racing’s No. 42 Sprint Cup car proceeded to take that lead away after clearing Hornish off Turn 2.

Larson quickly built a considerable lead, while Hornish promptly slid back to fifth behind Busch, Logano and Matt Kenseth before the first caution came out at Lap 47 for debris. On the subsequent stops, Busch was able to take the lead with Kenseth following in second to set up a Lap 52 restart.

Kenseth leaped ahead of the pack off the restart, but the run was short-lived as the yellow came out again for Corey Lajoie’s spin off of Turn 4. Lajoie, who was running 21st and is making his NNS debut today, then bounced lightly off the inside front-stretch wall before coming to a stop.

Under caution No. 2, Dillon opted to come to the pits at Lap 57 for more chassis adjustments to try and cure his car’s handling issues. The decision cost him track position, however, and he had to line up 23rd when the green came out again at Lap 61.

With Hornish lurking in third, Busch and Kenseth dueled for the lead before the former won out at Lap 63. However, Keselowski made a charge for the lead and was ahead of Busch by another debris caution at Lap 66; farther back, Dillon had peeled off five positions to move into 18th at that point.

The race resumed at Lap 70, and Keselowski pulled away as Busch, Logano, Hornish, Larson and Kenseth had it out amongst themselves behind him. When everything shook out after a few laps, it was Logano that had emerged with the runner-up position, and on Lap 83, he shot past Keselowski down the backstretch for P1.

Logano was ahead by about two seconds over Keselowski when yet another debris caution came out shortly before Lap 100 of 200. However, he was able to keep the lead after pit stops, with Busch, Kenseth, Larson and Hornish behind him. Dillon took the Lap 102 restart in 12th position.

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Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

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