Joey Logano Goes From 27th to First Win of Year in Chaotic Texas Race
There should be one rule for drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series, never let Joey Logano feel like he has a chance. That's because if the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse finds himself in the conversation late in a race, he more than likely is going to do whatever it takes to finish the job.
For the 37th time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, Logano emerged victorious, this time in an overtime finish to the Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday. Prior to Sunday's race at Texas, it had been a rough start to the season for the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion.
RESULTS: Wurth 400 at Texas
Logano came into Sunday's race with zero top-five finishes on the season, after he was disqualified from a fifth-place finish due to an infraction for a spoiler bolt in post-race inspection last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. Now, not only does Logano have a top-five finish, he is a winner, and he's back in the Playoffs to battle for his fourth career NASCAR Cup Series title.
The 34-year-old is just thankful the roller coaster season led him to a win at Texas Motor Speedway, and he did it with longtime sponsorship partner AAA, which he had never won with before.
"The sport changes so quickly. It's crazy how you can just ride these roller coasters and just proud of the team," Logano said. "Finally get AAA Insurance into victory lane. They've been a partner of mine since I've been to Penske, so 13, 14 years. I've yet to win with them. It was awesome to get that done here."
Logano, who started the chaotic race from the 27th position, methodically chipped away all race long as contenders fell by the wayside through a combination of on-track crashes and pit road strategies, which simply didn't pan out. Logano and his crew chief Paul Wolfe remained perfect, and in the closing laps, Logano found himself hounding Michael McDowell for the race win.
"Slowly, methodically, a couple at a time," Logano said of his steady climb up the leaderboard. "We had a really tough pit stall situation. The pit crew did a good job of managing that and just grabbed a couple here and there. The car was fast. I knew that yesterday. We just did a poor job qualifying. Just grinded it."
The opportunistic Logano would seize his chance with an incredible move on McDowell from the bottom lane on the exit of Turn 2 on Lap 264. As Logano assumed the lead, McDowell, who was hoping to pull off the unexpected win, dropped to third behind Ryan Blaney.
NEW LEADER: LOGANO. pic.twitter.com/ueDUePmPnF
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 4, 2025
McDowell, who took just two tires on the final pit stop of the race, which is how he inherited the track position needed to gain the lead, would crash a lap later after the dirty air behind Logano, and Blaney's cars, which disturbed the handling on his car. In an instant, McDowell turned sharp right into the outside wall, which sent the race into Overtime.
A tough turn of events for Michael McDowell in Texas. pic.twitter.com/r3toT1jJW9
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 4, 2025
Due to the crash, McDowell would exit the race and be credited with a 26th-place finish, while Logano was left to attempt to fend off Blaney, his hungry teammate, and Ross Chastain, perhaps the only driver in the field with a similar aggression level to that of Logano.
Chastain would shove Logano on the restart, which would allow Logano to gain the momentum needed to clear Blaney on the exit of Turn 2, and Chastain would follow Logano past Blaney to the runner-up spot. However, Logano was in the clear, and there was no looking back as he took the checkered flag by 0.346 seconds over Chastain.
JOEY LOGANO WINS AT TEXAS! #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/1S4qIINm7y
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 4, 2025
The driver of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet actually started even further back in the field than Logano did, as he rolled from the starting grid in the 31st position. The racer admitted that his confidence was shaken after Saturday's qualifying session, but his crew chief Phil Surgen, and the No. 1 team was able to help him find what he needed to have a great race down the stretch.
"Just no confidence in the car yesterday. Y'all saw that," Chastain explained. "Just the speed of the Trackhouse cars on Saturdays is just terrible. We're just not confident, all three drivers. So there was one pit stop today that Phil Surgen and the group -- it takes a ton of people back at Trackhouse and on the box here in GM at Chevrolet. They 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."
After working his way to a runner-up finish, Chastain put in a full-day's work at the 1.5-mile speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.
"Yeah, that's a working-class day. That's enough reason to go to Tootsie's next time I'm in Nashville," Chastain quipped. "I want to head straight there. Gosh, that's a working day."
Blaney, who looked to have one of the best cars on the track in the second half of the race, finished third, and was disappointed to miss out on another could-be win Sunday at Texas after picking the wrong lane on a late-race restart.
"The one time I didn't pick the outside, [McDowell] gets the lead, and then I couldn't get it back," Blaney stated. "Just driver making dumb decisions and not doing his job, so appreciate the 12 car was a fast car. Just can't do nothing right currently, so hopefully it will work itself out."
While he was hard on himself after the race, the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford has performed well this season despite being winless. Blaney ranks seventh in the championship standings despite suffering four DNFs through the opening 11 races of the year.
Kyle Larson led a race-high 90 laps in Sunday's race, but he was outdueled by McDowell on a Lap 243 restart. As McDowell got around Larson for the lead, Larson suffered from dirty air, and could never mount another challenge for the win.
Erik Jones captured a fifth-place result on a great day overall for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB. For Jones, this is his first top-five finish at a non-superspeedway track since a third-place run at Kansas Speedway in Fall 2023.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon, John Hunter Nemechek, Christopher Bell, and Daniel Suarez rounded out the top-10 finishers in Sunday's race, which featured 12 cautions.
William Byron, who came into the race with a healthy point lead over Larson, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, saw his point lead diminish to just 13 points at the conclusion of Sunday's race. As Larson piled on 19 Stage Points, and finished inside of the top-five, Byron struggled finishing 13th after suffering damage on pit road late in the race in an incident with Cole Custer.
Denny Hamlin, the third-place driver in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, suffered a blown engine on Lap 75, which ended his day early and resulted in a last-place finish.
One of the biggest heartbreak moments, aside from McDowell's crash late in the race, belonged to Josh Berry, who spun his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford from the lead while attempting to lap Cody Ware on Lap 125. Berry would back into the wall, which caused severe damage to his car, and it sent him behind the wall for repairs.
Berry would return to the race, and would ultimately finish 32nd, 84 laps off the pace.
On Lap 172, the first of three multi-car melees broke out on the backstretch when Bubba Wallace collided with the outside wall on the exit of Turn 2, and was turned after contact from Logano, the eventual race-winner.
The crash swept up fellow contenders Alex Bowman, AJ Allmendinger, Noah Gragson, Cole Custer, and Chad Finchum.
In the waning laps of the race, Kyle Busch had worked himself into the third position and looked like he was poised to snap his lengthy losing streak, which dates back to June of 2023. However, Busch would slide high in Turn 4 on Lap 229, and would spin from the third position.
Busch would finish a disappointing 20th after being involved in another crash on Lap 248 with Austin Cindric, and Cole Custer after Brad Keselowski spun and crashed his No. 6 RFK Racing Ford on the exit of Turn 2.
Keselowski, who was running 12th at the time of that late-race crash, was looking for his first top-10 finish of the season. After sustaining major damage, Keselowski would be credited with a 28th-place result.
Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, May 11. That race will be televised on FS1, and television coverage for the event will kick off at 3:00 PM ET. The Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide radio coverage of the race.
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Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.