Joey Logano had a big belly laugh when describing what he saw coming through the final chicane at the end of Sunday’s race at the Charlotte Roval, and how could he not?
The chaos on the final lap benefited the reigning Cup Series champion by advancing him into the Round of 8. Logano drove around the backward cars of Ross Chastain and Denny Hamlin, the former having been the driver he needed to beat for the final transfer spot.
“Uh, cars in reverse, wide open,” Logano laughed. “I saw [Chastain] going in there sideways trying to get the No. 11 and I was like, ‘Oh boy, this could be the difference right here.’ But at that point, I was just a passenger. We did what we did; our bed was made. I was too far back to do anything myself, so I was just going to go through the corner and hope for the best.”
There appeared to be nothing left Logano could do by the final lap, tied with Chastain in points, set to advance on a tiebreak. The move Chastain made on Hamlin, desperately needing the position, opened the door for Alex Bowman, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Logano to drive by at the finish line. In doing so, Logano overtook Chastain by four points.
“It was just relief,” the Penske driver said. “The No. 1 was faster than us today, but I thought after they had their issues on pit road the first time, he was 10 or 12 spots behind us, but when he stayed out and got stage points, I didn’t see that coming. Their long-haul was just really good; it was solid. So was the guy who won the race (Shane van Gisbergen). They have something figured out there, and we have to figure that out.
“But there at the end, we were at the point where we were probably going to get beat. Paul [Wolfe] did Paul-type things and figured it out, and put us in the spot.”
Wolfe called Logano to pit road for tires with 11 laps to go. It came on the same lap Chastain passed Logano for the 13th position. The move swung the points in Chastain’s favor as Logano had been leading the Trackhouse driver.
Logano was eight points behind Chastain with six laps to go, six points behind with five laps to go, and four points behind with three laps to go. At the white flag, it was one point between the No. 1, who was continuously losing positions, and the No. 22, who made up ground.
