Joey Logano reacts to 'frustrating' end to Talladega, must-win situation at Martinsville

At one point, Team Penske was in full control of this race. Then, it evaporated as Joey Logano fought his car until the finish. The 22 team had what they thought was a mechanical issue with the gear oil temperature. Then, fuel came into play and forced them to pit road late.

We have seen Penske control these superspeedway races before. With Josh Berry, it isn’t uncommon to see them four deep, pushing each other in a line, or even two-by-two and blocking both lanes with their Fords.

As this race closed in on the finish, a restart with 18 laps to go, those Penske Fords were cut in half. Josh Berry was multiple laps down after an oil issue, and Austin Cindric was out of the race over 100 laps prior. Still, they had a Ford teammate in Todd Gilliland.

Then, overtime happened. Chris Buescher was hooked from the front of the field and wrecked, by himself, into the inside wall. That Penske control went away as soon as that caution came out. Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney needed fuel.

Logano talked about the frustrating end to today’s race. He also touched on fighting his car and all of the troubles that came with it.

“Yeah, it was a battle throughout the day,” Joey Logano said after the race. “Led some good laps there and laps that mattered, we weren’t there, unfortunately. So, we kinda didn’t have a good enough start in the first stage. Then kind of went from the lead back to fifth or sixth and the second stage, obviously, with the caution falling there during the green flag cycle. Kind of got us in a bad spot there.

“Then I thought we were in a good spot there at the end, and after the pit cycle, I had my teammate in front of me, which is kind of perfect line up is what you would want. Can’t say [inaudible] did a good enough job to stay up there and do our part. So, really, really frustrating, really frustrating, I’ll tell you. Because you’re so close, and when you see in front of you what you’ve gotta do and you can’t do anything about it, it’s frustrating. We know what we gotta do now, it’s pretty simple.”

When asked about his ordeals with his car, Joey Logano tried to remain positive. At least he finished the race…

“It was a little off, I think,” Logano said. “But, you know, it made it, so that part’s good.”

Despite leading the most laps, Joey Logano couldn’t get the job done. He is now -38 points to the cutline, and he has to win at Martinsville to keep his Championship 4 hopes alive. Right now, it looks like the three-time champ won’t become the four-time champ in 2025.