Joey Logano walked out of Sunday night’s race with a bittersweet taste, the kind where you’re proud of the grind but still stuck replaying the “what ifs.” After battling through a tough start and clawing his way to the front during a long green-flag stretch, Logano genuinely believed victory was finally within reach.
“On that long run towards the end we were able to drive up to the lead and those cars in front of us, they were tanking before me,” he said post-race. “They were getting to the cords before me and so I felt like we had a good shot because they all pitted as soon as they got the cords, and I felt like that was gonna give me a good chance to maybe win the race if it stayed green there because the 6 was falling off hard.”
“He was seven or eight tenths off the last two laps. The 12 was starting to tank as well, so I was feeling like I was gonna get them back and then the caution came out and we were out of tires.”
That caution changed everything. With no fresh tires left, Joey Logano had to bolt on old scuffed ones while his competitors got new rubber. All the momentum he’d built was gone in an instant.
Joey Logano Battles Back After Rough Start
The night didn’t exactly start like a winning run for Joey Logano. His car was sluggish early, leaving him trapped a lap down while the leaders pulled away. But once the first green-flag pit cycle passed, something clicked.
“We just fired off really, really bad. It wasn’t really getting acclimated to anything,” he admitted. “I felt like even that long run to start, after we got the first green flag cycle, I was like, ‘Alright, we’re pretty good.’ We were just trapped a lap down, so once we got it back we just needed longer runs.”
Joey Logano thrives when races stretch out, when tire wear and patience start mattering more than pure speed. But Sunday night was chaos: short run after short run, restarts stacking up like traffic on a Monday morning. It left him little time to find rhythm or close the gap until that one long stint opened the door.
Joe Logano Finds Momentum With Back-to-Back Top Fives
Even though the win slipped through his fingers, Joey Logano’s walking away with optimism. The top-five finish marked his second straight, a sign that his Team Penske crew is finally finding their stride at a crucial point in the season.
“At this point of the season we need to be doing that kind of stuff,” he said. “I’m proud of the team and proud of the execution. I felt like the win was right there in front of us, but just couldn’t quite grab it.”
That’s the thing about racing: sometimes you can do everything right and still lose to the timing of a yellow flag. But Joey Logano’s run showed he’s not fading, if anything, he’s heating up. If he can keep stringing together these kinds of performances, it’s only a matter of time before he parks the No. 22 back in Victory Lane.
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