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Logano bounces back with caution-riddled Texas overtime victory
Joey Logano prevailed in overtime Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway to put a win on the board as he defends the NASCAR Cup Series crown.
Logano beat Ross Chastain and Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney in the Wurth 400. He cleared Blaney on the final restart and drove away.
The victory comes a week after Logano and his No. 22 team were disqualified at Talladega Superspeedway for a missing nut on a spoiler bolt. It wiped out their first top-five finish of the season. But in Sunday’s win, Logano rewrote the statistic by claiming his first win and first top-five of the season.
“The sport changes so quickly,” Logano said. “It’s crazy how you can ride these roller coasters. I’m just proud of the team, proud to finally get AAA insurance into victory lane. They’ve been a partner of mine since I’ve been with Penske, so 13, 14 years, and we had yet to win with them, so it was awesome to get that done here.
“It’s going to be a fun night.”
Logano made his way to the front of the field with four laps to go in regulation. He drove to the inside of Michael McDowell off Turn 2 and fought to clear McDowell going into Turn 3, even as the Spire Motorsports driver drove him down near the inside backstretch wall. McDowell crashed a lap later, which brought out the 12th and final caution of the afternoon.
The final restart saw Logano on the inside lane and Blaney on the outside lane. Blaney lost the second position to Chastain shortly after Logano cleared him.
Kyle Larson finished fourth after leading a race-high 90 laps. He also won the second stage, but Larson lost control of the race when McDowell cleared him into Turn 1 on a restart with 23 laps to go. Larson then slid high in Turn 3 with Tyler Reddick to his outside and lost further ground.
Erik Jones finished fifth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sixth, Austin Dillon seventh and John Hunter Nemechek eighth to put both Legacy Motor Club cars inside the top 10.
Christopher Bell finished ninth and Daniel Suarez completed the top 10.
There were six caution flags inside the final 50 laps. Among those taken out of contention late was Kyle Busch, who spun from third place with 39 laps to go, and polesitter Carson Hocevar, who was involved in a multi-car crash with 31 laps to go.
Austin Cindric, who won the first stage and led the second-most laps (60), was collected in a multi-car crash with 21 laps to go. Tyler Reddick was running inside the top 10 when he was spun in Turn 1 by Suarez with 14 laps to go.
The afternoon of attrition started early. Both stages ended under caution, including when Denny Hamlin blew an engine before the end of the first stage.
Josh Berry was leading when he crashed at the beginning of the final stage. He led the third most lap of any driver (41).
In all, there were 12 cautions and 20 lead changes from 13 drivers. Logano is the seventh different winner this season.
Logano started 27th.
“Just slowly, methodically, a couple at a time,” Logano said of coming through the field. “We had a really tough pit stall situation; the pit crew did a good job at managing that and just grabbed a couple here and there.
“The car was fast. I knew that yesterday, I just did a poor job qualifying, and just grinded it out. Just keep grinding a couple here and a couple there, and eventually get a win here. It’s nice to get one -- real nice.”
Kelly Crandall
Kelly has been on the NASCAR beat full-time since 2013, and joined RACER as chief NASCAR writer in 2017. Her work has also appeared in NASCAR.com, the NASCAR Illustrated magazine, and NBC Sports. A corporate communications graduate from Central Penn College, Crandall is a two-time George Cunningham Writer of the Year recipient from the National Motorsports Press Association.
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