Unlikely trio sits atop Chase standings

Logano owns the tiebreaker over Hamlin because of a better best finish in the Eliminator Round (fifth-place result at Martinsville), so the fact he is at the top of the standings is perhaps the least surprising. But his hopes to advance to the next round were about to take a hit with less than 50 laps to go at Texas.



That's when he dropped from fourth place to 23rd after a pit stop. The issue? The glue on the lug nuts didn't have time to set and three fell off the tire. That led to a long pit stop, and it didn't seem like there was enough time in the race for Logano to rebound.



Then, less than 15 laps later, a caution came out when Logano spun after making contact with the No. 9 of Marcos Ambrose. Logano dropped to 25th and was in danger of posting the worst finish among Chase drivers.



But four more cautions in the race's final 28 laps gave Logano opportunities to make up ground. He ended up with a 12th-place finish, which was good enough to give him the catbird seat heading to the desert Southwest.



"I don't know what happened with the glue on the pit stop and I haven't gotten the full story yet, but we had a hell of a time trying to put rear tires on the car," Logano said. "We lost all our track position with 30 to go and I came off the corner and the 9 hit me. ... We put tires back on it and then just held on till the end and got something decent out of something that could have been way worse."



Newman and Hamlin had similar stories to tell.



For Hamlin, his crew chief Darian Grubb made a two-tire gamble after a caution on Lap 224 that gained the No. 11 car the lead. But it was only temporary, because in just one lap Hamlin lost six positions. Eventually, he dropped as low as 14th before the next caution flag.



"We had a bad car," Hamlin, who finished 10th, said. "We made the best of it. Other guys made mistakes. We weren't really that good. Luckily other guys had problems. That's what happened."



Hamlin had a point as every Chase driver ran into an issue. Some were bigger than others. For Newman, his issue came when Matt Kenseth made contact with him on a restart with 24 laps to go and afterward the No. 31 car developed a tire rub.



But a couple laps later, a caution for an accident involving Kasey Kahne and Trevor Bayne allowed Newman to come to pit road and get new tires. Newman's 15th-place finish was enough for him to stay just two points behind Logano and Hamlin.



About the contact with Kenseth, Newman said, "We just got our quarter panel knocked in. They went three and four wide there and put me in the middle of it. There wasn't a whole lot of respect out there. We saw that before, during, and after the race."



However, there will be plenty of respect for the four drivers who emerge from Phoenix as the ones advancing to the Championship Round. And if these drivers are among the four who do it, then they can look back at Texas as the place where they survived near-disaster.

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