Point leader #2-Brad Keselowski will move onto the front row of Sunday’s Sprint Cup finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway thanks to a wreck during Saturday’s first practice. Pole-sitter #20-Joey Logano will go to a backup car and start at the back of the field after being involved in an accident with #11-Denny Hamlin and #16-Greg Biffle. When Logano drops back just prior to the start of the race, the inside line will move up and put Keselowski essentially on the pole position. Keselowski qualified third. NASCAR has the discretion of whether to allow the pole-sitter to pick what lane he would have started. Officials opted not to give Logano, who will be Keselowski’s teammate at Penske Racing next year, that choice. Keselowski enters the race with a 20-point lead over five-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who will start 10th. Johnson in the outside lane will not move up.
What happened to cause the wreck? Biffle said he and Hamlin were ‘running a little hard’ for practice when they got into each other and collected Logano in the process. Logano said there appeared to be confusion among Biffle and Hamlin over whether they were two or three wide. ‘I was behind the [Biffle], Denny went to the bottom, I went to the top and the 16 was in the middle,’ Logano said. ‘I wasn ‘t going to stick it three-wide so I stayed back because I figured it was practice, why are we going to do that? Just seemed like Denny was coming up like we were two-wide and the 16 stayed in the middle of the race track like he was three-wide and they ran out of room and I was the innocent bystander once again and drove into it. It’s unfortunate.’(ESPN)(11-17-2012)
