Logano in another rift as he eyes title shot at Texas

Joey Logano has again arrived at Texas in the middle of a rift with another playoff contender after some short-track shenanigans.

It all comes with the defending NASCAR Cup champion trying to lock in a spot for the championship finale.

A year ago, Martin Truex Jr. was upset over Logano’s bump-and-run on the final lap at the half-mile Martinsville Speedway. Truex promised that the No. 22 Team Penske driver wouldn’t win the title, although it didn’t quite work out that way.

Fast forward to last week: Truex was celebrating his first victory at the Virginia track, with the 2017 Cup champion having secured a spot in the final four for the Nov. 17 championship race.

Logano went to Denny Hamlin on pit road to discuss an on-track incident. That turned into a chaotic confrontation, with Logano smacking Hamlin on the shoulder before one of Logano’s crew members yanked the rival driver to the ground.

“Yeah, I guess that means we are running up front and racing for wins,” Logano said about all of these squabbles. “That is what that means. You are up there and trying to win. The mini disagreements are when you are running 20th. If you are running up front and in the top-five they become escalated.”

Logano is fourth in points going into Sunday’s race at the 1 1⁄ -mile Austin, Texas,

2 track, trailing Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Truex, Hamlin and Kyle Busch. Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson and hard-luck Chase Elliott are also still in playoff contention.

Harvick won at Texas last fall, when he got past polesitter Blaney in overtime. After a good start to the playoffs this season, ranking second after the first two races, Harvick has slipped below the cutline.

“We have done nothing but shoot ourselves in the foot that last few weeks,” said Harvick, who was seventh last week. “We started last at Kansas and crashed at Talladega and I don’t know what we did last week. I guess it was just typical Martinsville.”

FORMULA ONE

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen led the third and final practice before Saturday qualifying for the U.S. Grand Prix at Austin, Texas.

Verstappen’s best lap of the session was 0.218 seconds faster than Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel’s. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was fifth.