Leave it to Joey Logano, NASCAR‘s always merciless opportunist, to flip the narrative of both his 2025 season and a treacherous Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.
As contenders’ cars careened over bumps and into barriers all around him, the Team Penske star patiently waited out the mayhem until his moment arrived.
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And he then schooled two drivers to lead seven of the final eight laps — the only time Logano was at the front during 271 laps — and finish first a week after placing last because of a disqualification that he treated as inspiring instead of soul-crushing.
“It‘s just how we do stuff,” said Logano, who told wife Brittany “Watch, we‘ll go win this one” after the DQ.
Now the three-time Cup Series champion is locked into defending his title in the 2025 playoffs, and he must be considered an overnight candidate to join the way-too-early list of championship favorites.
That might seem a whiplash assessment of a driver with no top fives in 10 prior races before notching his 37th career victory.
But this is the No. 22 Ford, and the most redoubtable team in NASCAR proved yet again that being in a weak position often brings out its strongest traits.
“Any time you kick us down, I feel like we come back 10 times harder, whatever that is in us,” Logano said. “Definitely had a fast car today, and it’s nice to change the story line.”
Coming out of Talladega Superspeedway, the story of Logano‘s season was largely a disappointing tale.
As if it weren‘t enough to set a record for longest stretch (six races) for opening a title defense without a top 10, his first top-five finish was nullified in postrace inspection by an improperly secured spoiler. A third of the way through the season, it would be easy to conclude the “Odd Off Year” jinx had kicked in again for Logano, whose six championship round appearances all came in even-numbered years.
“The sport changes so quickly,” he said. “It’s crazy how you can just ride these roller coasters.”
No one navigates the undulations of a 36-race season better than the No. 22, which responded Sunday while others faltered. Logano‘s victory was possible only because the other two Cup champions during the past four years blew it on restarts.
In the final two-lap shootout, Penske teammate Ryan Blaney was unable to outrace Logano with his No. 12 Ford from the outside lane. This was after Blaney inexplicably picked the inside behind leader Kyle Larson for a Lap 245 restart. The outside of the front row was ceded to Michael McDowell, who left Larson and Blaney in the dust.
Given two more shots at McDowell on restarts at Lap 253 and 258, Blaney couldn‘t seize the lead from the No. 71 Chevrolet. The 2023 Cup champion was his own harshest critic.
“The one time I didn’t pick the outside, (McDowell) gets the lead, and then I couldn’t get it back,” Blaney said. “Just a driver making dumb decisions and not doing his job, so appreciate the 12 was a fast car. Just can’t do nothing right currently, so hopefully it will work itself out.”
RELATED: Blaney, Larson share in exasperation with Texas results
Larson could relate. The 2021 Cup champion admittedly was snookered by McDowell in losing the lead and two more spots to settle for fourth.
“You don’t want to give up the lead on a mile and a half,” Larson said. “It’s hard to get it back. Michael just did a good job timing it. I left early the restart before and was going to leave early again then. He just anticipated and left probably right with me or just barely before, and he had (Tyler) Reddick pushing him. So, yeah, wish I could go back and do that all over again. Yeah, just bummer, but try to learn from it.”
Not every driver behind Logano squandered chances to win.
Ross Chastain and Trackhouse Racing showed the type of mettle that‘s largely been absent from the No. 1 Chevrolet since making the championship round in 2022. After qualifying 31st (his eighth consecutive start outside the top 15), Chastain rediscovered his tenacity with a midrace change.
“Just no confidence in the car yesterday,” he said. “Just the speed of the Trackhouse cars on Saturdays (in qualifying) is just terrible.
“We’re just not confident, all three drivers. So there was one pit stop today that (crew chief) Phil Surgen and the group … made me a confident driver all of a sudden with one adjustment. It was small stuff. It doesn’t even make sense, but after that I was a confident driver.”
RELATED: Chastain talks about his runner-up finish at Texas
So was McDowell after a shrewd two-tire call by crew chief Travis Peterson. McDowell was cruising toward his first checkered flag in nearly two years and a win that would have ranked among the biggest surprises of 2025.
But Logano methodically wore down McDowell by finding speed in the upper lane (where others wrecked earlier) to pressure the Spire Motorsports driver into eventually crashing.
It was a quintessential march by Logano, who always seems to soar when the chips are down. On the “Inside the Race” podcast, Todd Gordon recalled he “begged for late-race cautions” when he was the No. 22 crew chief from 2013-19 because Logano has uncanny vision on restarts to anticipate others’ moves.
“He sees it in color that no one else does,” Gordon said. “That‘s part of what made Joey a three-time champion. He understands what people will do and how to put them in bad positions. His mental ability is top three in the garage.”
Texas triggered major echoes of last year‘s championship run (which is chronicled in the “Full Speed” docuseries that will be released Wednesday on Netflix).
The No. 22 was eliminated from the 2024 playoffs at the Roval and then reinserted three hours later after Alex Bowman‘s No. 48 was disqualified. A week later, Logano opened the Round of 8 by winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to be the first locked into a Phoenix championship race that he would win.
The vibe was similar the past week.
“I just know how this sport works,” Logano said. “That’s why you got to just brush some stuff off. Last week, did it suck? Yeah. It’s a long week, but you know that next Sunday presents the opportunity for redemption. We did that today.”
They do it all the time.
Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is a contributor to the new “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast
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