Start: 2nd |  Finish: 13th  | Points: 9th

Stage One: 30th  |  Stage Two: 2nd 

Joey Logano worked his way to a 13th-place finish Sunday at Phoenix in the 22 team’s first trip back to the one-mile track since claiming the NASCAR Cup Series championship in November. Logano started from the outside of row one after narrowly winning the pole Saturday afternoon, but a restart violation for crossing the yellow line prior to the start-finish line during the restart following a caution on lap nine resulted in pass-through penalty on lap 20, relegating the Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford to the tail of the field in the middle of the green flag run. Crew chief Paul Wolfe opted to put on red option tires after the caution flew on lap 91, as Logano was one of two drivers on the same strategy for the ensuing run in order to gain back track position. Logano vaulted from 24th to the lead by lap 130 as he gapped the field by over two seconds. Ultimately, the tire strategy equalized as the No. 20 made his way past Logano with eight laps to go in the stage, resulting a second-place finish in Stage 2. The 22 team won the race off pit road following a four tire stop for its last set of option tires to match the leaders for the opening run of the final stage, but a caution on lap 214 forced Logano to hit pit road for four primary tires. Logano held his ground in the top-10 during the ensuing run, but teams on the option tires for the final stretch proved beneficial as he settled for a 13th-place finish.

“Obviously our strategy took a hit with the penalty early on. That took us out of, at least, a pair of top-10 stage finishes. We had top-10 speed all day but had to settle for 13th. We’re looking forward to Vegas and building off of our last trip there.”

WHAT’S NEXT:The NASCAR Cup Series rounds out the west coast swing next week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Coverage of Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1 with in-car camera angles available all race long through MAX Driver Cam.