Imagine this scenario: You’re in an Olympic swimming competition. You come from behind at the last instant to win the gold, but there’s a distraction. One of your competitors moved out of his lane and bumped into another swimmer, and now they’re fighting, splashing water everywhere. Few notice your achievement.
This is Joey Logano. Without the water.
Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, Logano won a race in rather remarkable fashion and, at almost the same moment, lost fans’ interest. And, to top off the irony, one of his teammates was a focal point. After finishing 33rd.
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What’s a winning driver to do?
Bask in the numbers, for one thing.
As Logano was celebrating victory in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, Ryan Blaney, also carrying Team Penske colors, engaged in a pit-road fight with Carson Hocevar, the result of their cars coming together while racing for position late in the race. Blaney was furious. Hocevar was the target of his anger, and their prolonged brawl left Logano with what became a sort of muted celebration.
Flying fists seem to outweigh flying cars.
Lest we forget, it was an evening of blockbuster achievements for Logano. He left the track not with a feather in his cap but with the whole bird resting on his head.
Consider:
– Logano accomplished a major Team Penske in-house doubleheader. He not only surpassed Rusty Wallace for the most wins (38) in Penske Cup history but also moved past Wallace for most Cup starts at Penske with 497.
– The win was the 40th Cup victory for Logano, tying him with Mark Martin on the all-time wins list. Good company.
– Logano gained 35 points on first place in the race for the championship and sits in third place, only 16 points back, heading into Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway.
– Logano took advantage of tight racing among the other front-runners to zip into first place with seven laps remaining, winning with relative ease (1.24 seconds) over Kyle Larson.
– He won the first stage and was third in the second, eventually totaling 73 points for the race.
All in all, a superlative night.
Ironically enough, Logano had to maneuver past Blaney’s spinning car after the incident with Hocevar. It was close.
“When I saw Blaney spin, I was already committed into the corner,” Logano said. “Coleman (Pressley, his spotter) was yelling at me, ‘Get down, get down, get down.’ I’ve already sent it way too deep in there to turn it to the left any more. Everybody knows Bristol is self-cleaning, so I assumed he’s coming back down. Just had to be patient and wait for it.”
The patience paid off. Logano was on his way to a historic victory.
Logano was in fourth place — behind Ty Gibbs, Larson and Hocevar — for the race’s final restart with nine laps remaining. He closed out the win in classic Logano short-track style.
Hocevar pulled alongside Gibbs to challenge for the lead. They made side-to-side contact, slowing their momentum. Larson crowded into the scene on the outside, creating a messy, tight triangle of cars. Logano saw his opportunity, surged to the inside, passed the trio easily and was on his way to a landmark win.
Despite the awkward nature of the finish — one Penske driver wins, another takes a couple of hard fists to the face — it’s a huge moment when Logano passes a Penske legend like Rusty Wallace (on two lists at once!) and puts himself in solid position to win a fourth Cup championship.
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Logano joined Team Penske in 2013 after four disappointing seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing and soon was on course to make his nickname “Sliced Bread” (as in the best thing since) a reality.
“Roger Penske has been incredible to me, my family,” Logano said. “To have the opportunity to drive cars for him, there’s nowhere else I’d rather drive. … It’s really been, obviously, what I needed, whatever it’s been — 15 years ago or whatever it’s been. It’s been a while now.
“It’s not something that I looked at much of saying, ‘Hey, I wanted to be the winningest Cup driver there.’ I didn’t really think about it much. … But I think we’re all still part of one big family over there, and we just want to keep getting more. We’re not done yet.”
For much of the season, Logano raced out of character. He was as low as 20th in points, and there were fears among some followers that he might miss the postseason field. But he finally won in Race 21 at North Wilkesboro, then added a victory at Richmond to move into The Chase presented by Mobil 1 with a sense of momentum.
Now, past the Bristol chaos and ahead to Kansas Speedway this weekend, Logano is a real threat to wear championship colors again. A 16-point deficit to leader Larson seems small considering Logano’s momentum.
“It just shows how strong this team really is,” Wolfe said. “We’re able to step up when there’s a lot on the line, and we continue to show that. Obviously, we’re probably sitting really good right now from a points perspective with the win, but, either way, I think we’ve shown that whatever format it is, we’re going to be a contender, and that’s just because of the strength of our team.”