Joey Logano at a loss reacting to massive wreck taking out half the NASCAR Cup field at Atlanta

Joey Logano led 51 laps tonight before he was involved in the huge 23-car wreck in Stage 2 at EchoPark Speedway. Atlanta was not kind to many drivers tonight, including Logano and the 22 team. This NASCAR race is wide open right now.

Team Penske was controlling this race in Stage 1. Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Ryan Blaney, and the Wood Brothers’ Josh Berry were all up front to start the race.

Coming out of Stage 1, a few drivers flipped the stage. Logano did not. So, he and his Penske teammates were near the back of the pack on the restart to begin Stage 2. That was the wrong place for them to be.

“Wrong place at the wrong time, you know,” Joey Logano said to TNT Sports. “We went to try to win the stage and unforutnately we didn’t get that done, and then you know, you’re going to pay the piper and go to the back there.”

Joey Logano couldn’t believe his eyes watching the replay. He wasn’t sure what went wrong, but knew it wasn’t any good.

“Yeah, the whole field wrecked, and I’m just in the soup there. Oh, my gosh, look at that. Oh, that’s horrible.”

When asked what happened, Logano couldn’t put his finger on it. He seemed relatively upbeat for a driver who just got knocked out of a race by no fault of their own.

“I mean, I don’t know, like I said, it could have been a bad push. It’s kind of hard to say, right?” Logano responded. “I mean, you just see I’m in the middle of everything, so. It’s unfortunate, I think it got all of our cars. And the Penske cars were so strong, so fast. It’s unfortunate that it happens, but it’s part of the game sometimes, and as I say, sometimes you’re the ball, sometimes you’re the bat. Today, we’re the ball!”

After that wreck, the best Penske car is currently Austin Cindric, who is 70 laps down. Team Penske went from controlling this race to having four DNFs on the night. Not ideal.

Joey Logano has won at Atlanta twice since the reconfiguration. Despite having a great car early in this race, he won’t see the end of it. Looks like that third new-Atlanta win will have to wait.

Right now, Logano sits 10th in points. He has a win and a spot in the playoffs. But another win and a string of good runs going into the playoffs wouldn’t hurt by any means.