CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Joey Logano hoped he had done enough to move forward The NASCAR playoffs with an eighth-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
But when he left the track Sunday eveninghe was four points below the cut line and eliminated from any chance of winning a third Cup Series title.
Then came the phone calls: The inspection was taking a long time and there might be a problem with one of the playoff cars. All Logano could do was wait and wonder if there was really something wrong. Alex Bowman’s car and if it was egregious enough to push Logano into the round of 16.
“NASCAR, man. Expect the unexpected,” Logano said Tuesday. “You just roll with the punches, go with the flow and keep going. I feel like these days, more and more, crazy things can happen. I’ll just go with it.”
Sure enough, Bowman’s car proved insufficient and he was disqualified. The penalty dropped Bowman in the standings, and as soon as Hendrick Motorsports declined Monday night to appeal, Logano was back in the title race.
“Honestly, I was surprised. I had heard rumors that there was a technological delay, some of these things were happening. But usually nothing happens,” Logano said. “Would you be there?” This is the first question you need to ask. And then you stay cautiously optimistic, so you move on with your life and prepare for the next race.
The next race is Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Logano is a three-time winner and has started from the pole three times.
Logano will race over the next three weeks, his Team Penske teammate and defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney, the Hendrick Motorsports trio of William Byron, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson, Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Christopher Bell and 23XI Racing’s Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick for the four-place finish in the championship-deciding finale.
If he wins the title at Phoenix Raceway in November, Logano will be the only active three-time Cup Series champion in NASCAR. Kyle Busch, who did not make the playoffs, is the only active driver alongside Logano with two titles.
Logano said his No. 22 Ford team won’t make any changes to its approach as the team heads to Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami Speedway and Martinsville Speedway in Virginia to battle for a spot in the finals.
“In the same way, if we were going about it any other way, you go out there and attack the positives,” Logano said. “I think we’ve been steadily improving throughout the season to where we are now. The speed we had at the Roval seemed pretty solid to me, where we are a championship racing team of four calibers.
“The statistics may not look like it. From the outside we may look like the underdogs, but internally we are very confident in our racing team and know we can go into this and get ourselves into all four championships “, Logano continued. “And we’ve seen in the past where if you can get in there, anything can happen in Phoenix.
It starts Sunday in Las Vegas, where Logano won the 2022 playoff race that pushed him to win his second Cup title. Larson won last year’s playoff race in Las Vegas, as well as the spring race there earlier this season.
But Logano has every chance now that he’s been given this second chance.
“We’ve done it before,” he said, “we can do it again.”
___
AP Auto Racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
