DON’T COUNT OUT LOGANO JUST YET
Joey Logano has gone from almost winning four Sprint Cup races in a row to being at the back of the line in the search for his first series championship.
Logano was NASCAR’s golden boy until the final portion of Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway. He had a lead of several seconds and seemed on course for a win that would catapult him into the four-driver finale Nov. 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. But then Matt Kenseth jumped out of the shadows, crashed into the No. 22 Ford and knocked Logano from the top of the world to the bottom of the Chase for the Sprint Cup heap.
While Kenseth deals with the repercussions, including a tworace suspension levied by NASCAR, so must Logano. The Daytona 500 winner who has amassed a series-high six victories and has led 1,359 laps could fall short of a chance at the title.
Logano is eighth in points, last in the Chase, entering Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. He is 28 points behind the fourth-place cutoff and more than likely needs a win Sunday or the next weekend at Phoenix International Raceway to make the final four at Homestead.
Logano’s points position is his lowest of the season.
The strength of Team Penske’s cars over the last two months can’t be discounted. Logano certainly will have a shot at victory lane Sunday. He is one of four Chase drivers (Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch are the others) with a single victory at the 1.5-mile Texas track. Carl Edwards has three wins here, while Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick and fellow Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski are still seeking their first Texas wins.
The driver perhaps posing the biggest challenge to Logano — and other Chase drivers who need a win — is Jimmie Johnson, who is on the sidelines in the run toward the championship. Johnson has won four of the last six races at Texas, including the last two. The only other drivers to win during that stretch are Logano (spring race of 2014) and Kyle Busch (spring 2013).
The only championship contender in a safe zone is Gordon, who guaranteed his spot in the finale with Sunday’s breakthrough victory at Martinsville. Gordon can coast through Texas and Phoenix while preparing for Homestead, although a win in either of the next two races would add to his momentum and keep the rest of the Chase drivers scrambling.