One week after being disqualified at Talladega and finding himself in a war of words with a Baseball Hall of Famer, Joey Logano made a bold move to take the lead from Michael McDowell with four laps to go, then drove away from both Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain in overtime to win the Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday. The three-time and defending Cup Series champion earned his first win of the 2025 season and the 37th of his career, moving him into a tie for 23rd on NASCAR’s all-time wins list with Hall of Famer Bobby Isaac.
After a high-attrition race that saw dogfights for track position and a rough racing surface contribute to 12 caution flags, Logano found himself in position to win late in the going when he passed Penske teammate Ryan Blaney, giving him a shot to run down race leader Michael McDowell. McDowell had gotten to the front thanks in part to a two-tire pit call, but his left side tires were considerably older than his competitors and put him on defense as Logano began to close in.
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In a last-ditch effort to protect the lead, McDowell blocked Logano all the way to the apron of the backstretch as Logano got a run off turn 2, but his efforts proved in vain as Logano was able to carry his momentum to complete the pass by turn 3. McDowell crashed off turn 2 shortly afterwards, setting up a final restart where Logano easily scooted away from Blaney and then Ross Chastain.
Chastain and Blaney were joined in the top five by Kyle Larson and Erik Jones, with the rest of the top 10 consisting of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon, John Hunter Nemechek, Christopher Bell and Daniel Suarez.
Logano had been disqualified at Talladega after his car failed post-race tech inspection for missing a spoiler bolt, costing him a fifth-place finish as well as his first top five of the year, and he also had a small controversy on his hands in the week leading up to Texas. After a profanity-laced outburst on his radio against teammate Austin Cindric for not pushing him to a stage win, Atlanta Braves great and Baseball Hall of Famer Chipper Jones was highly critical of Logano on X, accusing Logano of having a “hooray for our team as long as I’m the star” attitude and saying that “sometimes karma is glorious.”
One week later, whatever good karma Logano has going for him worked in his favor, granting him the glory of a major step toward competing for his fourth Cup championship.
“This sport changes so quickly. It’s crazy how you can just ride these rollercoasters,” Logano told Fox Sports, who then recounted how he made his way from 27th starting spot to take the win. “We had a really tough pit stall situation, the pit crew did a good job at managing that. And just grabbed a couple (positions) here and there. The car was fast, I knew that yesterday. I just did a poor job qualifying, and just grinded it out.
“Just keep grinding a couple here and a couple there, and then eventually get a win here. So it’s nice to get one. Real nice.”
While Logano grinded his way to the front of the field, others found themselves grinding along the wall as the back straightaway and the apex of turns 3 and 4 proved to be major trouble spots. Josh Berry (while leading), Chase Briscoe and Kyle Busch were among those who spun out after bottoming out over a bump in the racing surface in turns 3 and 4, while several multi-car crashes occurred on the backstretch.
One such multi-car wreck involved polesitter Carson Hocevar, who slid up the track into Ryan Preece to trigger a crash that took him, Preece, and Cody Ware out of the race. It was the latest in a series of incidents between Hocevar and Preece, leading the driver of the No. 60 to make pointed comments towards Hocevar afterwards.
“He seems to be proving me right over and over again,” Preece told reporters outside the infield care center. “…Got ran into the fence by somebody that has no respect for his equipment and any other driver out there. He’ll have his day.”
As for Jones, he would once again post about Logano on his X account, this time tipping his cap to the “Hall of Fame” driver of the No. 22 Ford for his “masterful win.”
Wurth 400 results
- #22 – Joey Logano
- #1 – Ross Chastain
- #12 – Ryan Blaney
- #5 – Kyle Larson
- #43 – Erik Jones
- #47 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- #3 – Austin Dillon
- #42 – John Hunter Nemechek
- #20 – Christopher Bell
- #99 – Daniel Suarez
- #34 – Todd Gilliland
- #10 – Ty Dillon
- #24 – William Byron
- #35 – Riley Herbst (R)
- #7 – Justin Haley
- #9 – Chase Elliott
- #38 – Zane Smith
- #17 – Chris Buescher
- #41 – Cole Custer
- #8 – Kyle Busch
- #45 – Tyler Reddick
- #88 – Shane van Gisbergen (R)
- #54 – Ty Gibbs
- #77 – Carson Hocevar
- #2 – Austin Cindric
- #71 – Michael McDowell
- #19 – Chase Briscoe
- #6 – Brad Keselowski
- #60 – Ryan Preece
- #51 – Cody Ware
- #62 – Jesse Love
- #21 – Josh Berry
- #23 – Bubba Wallace
- #4 – Noah Gragson
- #48 – Alex Bowman
- #16 – A.J. Allmendinger
- #66 – Chad Finchum
- #11 – Denny Hamlin