{"id":317735,"date":"2025-10-20T04:49:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T04:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/317735\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T04:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T04:49:13","slug":"frustrated-joey-logano-leaves-talladega-in-a-must-win-scenario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/317735\/","title":{"rendered":"Frustrated Joey Logano Leaves Talladega in a Must-Win Scenario"},"content":{"rendered":"

TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2014<\/strong>\u00a0Cautiously optimistic is how Joey Logano felt entering Sunday\u2019s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.<\/p>\n

Leaving the track, he found himself in a must-win situation heading into next weekend\u2019s Round of 8 elimination race at Martinsville Speedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, reacts following the NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 19, 2025 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo Credit: Sean Gardner | Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Starting 16th, the driver of the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse had one clear objective.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get points. We need a solid points day or a win,\u201d Logano told his team over the radio.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, neither came to pass.<\/p>\n

Logano made early progress in Stage 1, methodically drafting through the field. When a multi-car accident broke out in Turn 3, he had worked his way to the top position on track.<\/p>\n

As the field prepared for a two-lap shootout to end the stage, the team viewed it as a preview of how their car would perform in a potential green\u2013white\u2013checkered finish later in the race.<\/p>\n

Logano finished Stage 1 in sixth, collecting five valuable stage points \u2014 a promising start that quickly began to unravel.<\/p>\n

On pit road, the Middletown, Connecticut native took on four Goodyear tires, fuel, and a slight adjustment, but he expressed concern about his gear oil temperature.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know for sure. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s in my head, but I\u2019m hot \u2014 even under caution. Warmer than it should be,\u201d Logano said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow much over are you?\u201d his team asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment I\u2019m 25 under, but I was 15 over in two laps,\u201d Logano replied, though the team assured him there was no major concern.<\/p>\n

Restarting Stage 2 in 23rd, further back than he preferred, Logano asked spotter Coleman Pressley to coordinate with teammate Ryan Blaney.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I go to the bottom, I\u2019m going to need Blaney to go with me and go hard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The tandem worked briefly, but pit cycle timing turned costly. On Lap 112, as green-flag pit stops began, Logano couldn\u2019t get down to pit lane before a caution flew for an incident on pit road.<\/p>\n

Forced to pit under yellow for fresh tires, fuel, and a windshield tear-off, Logano lost valuable track position and ended Stage 2 in 18th.<\/p>\n

Clearly frustrated, he radioed, \u201cSomething\u2019s off with this thing. You can smell it too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the start of the final stage, the team informed Logano they were 29 points behind the projected cut line. The mission was clear: win or bust.<\/p>\n

With 62 laps to go, Logano charged to the front and led 35 laps \u2014 the most he\u2019d led all day. But when the draft shuffled the Ford driver back in the pack and another late-race caution forced overtime, momentum was lost.<\/p>\n

\"\"Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, leads the field during the NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 19, 2025, in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo Credit: Sean Gardner | Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Needing fuel to finish, Logano pitted under the final caution, restarting 23rd. He clawed his way back to 16th at the checkered flag \u2014 a disappointing result given the day\u2019s early promise.<\/p>\n

Leaving Talladega, Logano sits 38 points below the cut line and must win at Martinsville to keep his championship hopes alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cMartinsville\u2019s not a bad track for us,\u201d Logano said post-race. \u201cWe just have a simple point of view at this point \u2014 it\u2019s all or nothing. Stage points aren\u2019t going to matter. Nothing else is going to matter but winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frustration lingered over the way the closing laps unfolded.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty apparent the second we lost control of the race,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m only driving one car, so I couldn\u2019t really control the race. The car behind me was saving gas \u2014 that didn\u2019t help us and killed the whole bottom lane. Cars were pulling in front of us, and we were just getting demoted from the first two cars in line to the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Logano\u2019s next chance comes at the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, October 26, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. ET \u2014 where it\u2019s truly win or go home for the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion.<\/p>\n

Follow Grace Krenrich on X (formerly known as Twitter) @grace3140 or email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2014\u00a0Cautiously optimistic is how Joey Logano felt entering Sunday\u2019s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Leaving the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":317736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-317735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115404692846760395","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}