Logano crew chief takes blame for call that cost Keselowski

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Joey Logano’s crew chief accepted blame Tuesday for not pitting Logano with a tire rub, a call that may have cost Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski a spot in NASCAR’s championship.

Logano was third with 12 laps remaining in Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway when contact with Kyle Busch created a tire rub on Logano’s car. Keselowski was leading and seemed to have the victory in hand, and the win would have earned Keselowski a slot in the season finale championship race.

But Logano was not called in to pit, the tire blew and he spun. It brought out a caution that ultimately led to Keselowski not winning the race.

“I missed the call,” crew chief Todd Gordon said Tuesday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Logano is not eligible for the playoffs, and once he developed the tire rub, he was out of contention for the Martinsville victory. Other playoff drivers, including Martinsville race winner Busch, noted that Logano should have pitted for the good of the Penske organization.

Gordon said that in the seconds he’s required to make a decision, he failed to consider Keselowski’s situation and was thinking only of gaining a momentum-building finish for Logano’s team. Keselowski had marked Martinsville as a mustwin race for him to earn one of the four slots in the championship.

“In the time Kyle got into us, we were third and fighting,” Gordon said. “I only got a couple of glimpses of (the tire). It was smoking. The first lap and half of that, I wasn’t sure how bad (the tire) was and as I saw, I didn’t know with a few laps left, whether it was an external rub or whether it was on the tire contact patch, and the smoke kind of clouds it a little bit for me.

“Honestly, it was looking at the fact that I felt like if it was just a tire rub we might (salvage) a topfive finish out of the day.”