CONCORD, N.C. — For nearly three hours, a brilliantly executed day by Joey Logano and Co. appeared all for naught.
Entering Sunday’s Round of 12 elimination race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, Logano sat 13 points beneath the advancement line. The No. 22 Team Penske cohort muscled up to the task, collecting a race-best 17 stage points and scoring 46 points — third-most behind only Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. But at the checkered flag, Logano’s eighth-place finish equated to a four-point deficit, missing the Round of 8 after a sensational charge by Tyler Reddick.
How quickly things change.
During post-race technical inspection, the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was ruled too light, ultimately leading to a disqualification for failing to meet minimum weight requirements. Driver Alex Bowman suddenly had his 18th-place result wiped from the board in addition to his 10 stage points, officially placing him last on the results rundown with only a single point awarded.
Bowman’s demise dropped him outside the postseason field of eight based on points allotted. And sure enough, there to capitalize was Logano.
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Instead, Logano was credited with 18 stage points and 47 points, all enough to surpass Bowman by a healthy 20-point margin and advance into the Round of 8. And while a stroke of luck surely played to its favor, the No. 22 team positioned itself to take advantage of the opportunity.
“I mean, there’s a lot to be proud of,” Logano said moments after the race. “You know, we came here with our back up against the wall needing to score a lot of points. And you think about the stages and then cycling yourself into kind of a tough spot. No matter how you call the race, you put yourself in a spot where you’re going to be at a disadvantage on tires or be way back in the pack. We were at one point, and I was able to kind of manage and I think we’re what second and third in the stages. So we did good with that.”
That third-place result in Stage 2 was plussed-up to a P2 after Bowman’s stage win was discredited, offering another point to Logano’s tally.
The two drivers just ahead of Logano in the standings were regular-season champion Reddick (plus-14) and 2020 Cup champ Elliott (plus-13). Crew chief Paul Wolfe knew points would be at a premium for his No. 22 team Sunday and never wavered from that agenda. In the end, it paid off.
“I think today, I’m pleased with how we executed the day,” Wolfe told NASCAR.com. “You know, we had a plan this week of coming here, making sure we qualified well, get those stage points. It really played out exactly how we planned. I wish we could have had a little more speed in the car overall, but to get all the stage points and then keep track position all day, which there was opportunity for that to flip. We stayed out there at the end of Stage 2. Joey did a nice job managing the car on the older tires.
“I really can’t say that we could have played it any differently, other than just having a little more speed would have been nice. But overall, we did a great job today.”
A second life for a Team Penske contender is dangerous for the rest of the postseason players, too. Logano and teammate Ryan Blaney have scored each of the last two Cup Series championships, the first two in which the Next Gen vehicle were used. But Logano’s Round of 12 wasn’t flashy, marked by a 14th-place run at Kansas before the “Big One” at Talladega relegated him to 33rd place.
Yet doubt never crept into Logano’s mind.
“We’re a championship-winning team,” he said. “It’s just, you know, we didn’t have a good round.”
Wolfe described his team’s 2024 campaign as “up and down,” but its turnaround came in the summer months, which included a playoff-position-clinching victory in June at Nashville Superspeedway.
“I think the second part of the season here as a company, Team Penske has been able to close the gap, I guess, on the competition — or maybe they’ve come back to us a little bit,” Wolfe said. “I think it’s probably a combination of both with the way NASCAR has been trying to do a really good job of enforcing the rules and making sure everyone’s (good) on that side of it. So I think that’s helped us some, and we’ve found a few things that have just made us better on the higher speed stuff was where we were lacking.
“I mean, I think you look at how we ran in Kansas, which was probably one of our worst tracks earlier in the season, all the Penske cars were strong there. So that, I think, gives us hope and optimism going into this next round with Vegas and Homestead on the list there, and obviously, Martinsville is a strong race for us as well. I think we’re in a good spot and, like I said, we’re gonna keep digging here and hopefully get us (a) championship.”
Worth noting is that Logano has qualified for the Championship 4 in every even-numbered year since 2014, scoring the title in both 2018 and 2022. It seemed like that streak was over for good when the checkered flag waved Sunday at the Roval.
But just like that, Logano’s playoff magic sparked back to life.
“I’ve watched enough NASCAR races now — and I hope you have, too — to know it’s never over until they’re over,” Logano said.