Joey Logano hit with surprising penalty while leading at Phoenix: 'That's ridiculous'

Joey Logano started on the front row and took the lead away from William Byron early in Stage 1 of Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 300 at Phoenix Raceway.

Then came Lap 18, when NASCAR penalized him for the previous restart. Logano was penalized for a restart violation after he dipped below the yellow line before completely crossing the start/finish line. The reigning Cup Series champion was forced to relinquish the lead and serve a pass-through penalty.

Here’s the move that got Logano a penalty pic.twitter.com/GoOvuSADSt

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Logano quickly made known he felt NASCAR made a bad call.

“No way,” Logano shouted over his radio.

He added, “It was freakin’ nothing. That is ridiculous.”

Joey Logano penalized, heads to back of pack at Phoenix

In the rulebook, there is a section that governs restarts and the inside line. Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports shared the rule on X.

“At oval track events, once the green flag has been displayed at the initial start and all restarts, all vehicles must maintain their respective track position/lane established by the front row above the apron as determined by the inside painted line until they have crossed the start/finish line,” the rule states.

Logano won at Phoenix when it mattered most — last year’s Cup Series Championship race. He had one of the fastest cars coming into Sunday’s race. But that penalty means he’ll have to navigate his way through the field to be in contention. Logano finished 29th in Stage 1.

But with two sets of the red option tires at their disposal, Logano and the No. 22 team can quickly get back in the mix. Ryan Preece and the No. 60 team went with the option tires in Stage 1, and it paid off. Preece went from 33rd to P3 to finish the stage.