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FORT WORTH, Texas -- In order to advance to his second straight Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Joey Logano all but needed to win one of the two remaining races of the Eliminator Round of NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup.
The Team Penske driver's chances were cut in half a mere 10 laps into Sunday's AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway -- by a cut tire.
Running fourth on Lap 10, Logano had a left-rear tire go down in Turn 2, spinning to the bottom of the track and suffering major damage to the left-rear quarter panel of his No. 22 Ford Fusion.
The wreck "shredded everything inside the car," according to Logano, and although he was able to get back out on track, he was saddled with a 40th-place finish. With one race remaining in the Eliminator Round and 63 points separating him from the cutoff line, Sunday's Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM) at Phoenix International Raceway is a must-win situation.
"(Today's race is) not what we needed, we need to win. But we're not out of it -- this team's not quitting," Logano said. "... It was just part of it. Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. We will be ready for Phoenix. This team is strong. We didn't take any wind out of our sails today, and we showed how fast this thing was even after we crashed."
The 25-year-old driver has yet to add a trophy from Phoenix to his quickly-growing collection, but if anyone on the circuit can unseat Kevin Harvick as the "Desert King" it's a motivated Logano.
The Team Penske driver swept the Contender Round races of the Chase, has six wins on the season and has a consecutive run of four straight top-10 finishes at Phoenix -- all of which were Harvick wins.
So how does he feel going into next week, knowing his entire season -- which started in February with his first Daytona 500 win -- is riding on it?
"Same as this week, right? This was a must-win situation as well," Logano said. "If we finished second today we would be in the same boat going into Phoenix. I feel great about our chances at Phoenix. It has been a great race track for us in the past. I felt like this track was a great one for us as well. It is unfortunate that we finished how we did."