NASCAR champion Joey Logano was involved in a late accident at Bristol Motor Speedway that jeopardized his chances of repeating
NASCAR champion Joey Logano clinging to title chances after crashing at BristolBy JENNA FRYERAP Auto Racing WriterThe Associated Press
NASCAR champion Joey Logano was involved in an accident at Bristol Motor Speedway that jeopardized his chance at repeating.
Logano drove his damaged No. 22 Ford to the garage just after the halfway point of Saturday night’s race with broken parts that were likely catastrophic to his season. The two-time champion was 12th in the standings and on the bubble of elimination when he was collected in the crash.
If Logano is indeed eliminated, he’d be the first reigning champion knocked out of the first round of the playoffs under this format.
“It will take a miracle at this point. Maybe something will happen and we can squeak in at some point,” Logano said after climbing from his car. “I’ll just sit and watch anxiously. It’s a bummer. I’ll watch the race like everyone else now.”
Logano’s car was damaged after he ran into Corey LaJoie, who was running 12th when LaJoie spun into Logano’s path. Logano took his car to pit road, but once it was determined his damage needed to be addressed in the garage, Logano’s night was over.
He was on pace to finish 34th and likely eliminated from the playoffs.
“We just we’re fast enough. You can’t go down a lap down, you’re at the back at Bristol on a restart and they wreck in front of you, and you get caught up,” Logano said. “It’s our own fault. We didn’t go fast enough in our Mustang.”
NASCAR’s first playoff elimination race was briefly paused by rain Saturday night for nearly 15 minutes at the start of the second stage. The race, the third and final race in the first round of NASCAR’s playoffs, will eliminate four drivers from the 16-driver championship field.
Logano was above the cutline at the start of the race. Instead, it was Martin Truex Jr., the regular-season champion, who was below the cutline along with Bubba Wallace, Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Michael McDowell.
Christopher Bell won the pole and won the first and second stage. Kyle Larson, who along with Tyler Reddick already earned automatic berths into the second round, had an amazing recovery after being penalized for running over equipment on pit lane. It dropped him to 33rd in the field but he battled back inside the top-five.
Denny Hamlin had his own huge comeback from 30th to 11th and finally 2nd when he was flagged for speeding on the same stop that Larson was penalized. Hamlin had run the bulk of the first stage comfortable on Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Bell’s bumper, but was once again caught speeding on the first round of stops.
Speeding on pit road has been an ongoing issue for Hamlin over the years. But, he started the race ranked third in the standings with a very strong shot at advancing into the next round.
SMITH TO SPIRE
Two new Cup drivers were announced at Bristol this weekend, with Kaulig Racing first promoting Daniel Hemric into one of its two seats next year. Trackhouse Racing then said it has signed Truck Series champion Zane Smith to a multi-year contract and will loan him to Spire Motorsports in 2024.
Trackhouse eventually plans to run three full-time cars, but isn’t ready to do so next season; Spire will put Smith in a third car and bought the charter needed to do so from Live Fast Motorsports.
Smith is trying to win a second consecutive Truck Series title before his move to NASCAR’s top series. He’ll be teammates at Spire with Corey LaJoie, who this summer signed an extension with Spire, but the rest of the lineup and Smith’s number is still to be determined. Spire fields two cars right now with LaJoie and Ty Dillon.
UP NEXT
NASCAR opens the second round of the playoffs next Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, which has only one Cup race this year for the first time since 2004. Tyler Reddick won the race a year ago driving for Richard Childress Racing.
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