Start: 20th | Finish: 28th | Points: 8th
Stage One: 14th | Stage Two: 33rd
Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil team saw their night at Bristol derailed in the closing laps of Stage 2 as Logano was involved in an incident that resulted in a 28th-place finish to cap off the Round of 16. Despite the result, Logano heads into the next round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs eighth in the standings, four points above the cut line. After starting 20th Saturday night, Logano quickly made his way into the top-15 despite a tight handling condition in the early going before coming away with a 14th-place finish in Stage 1. Following a four tire stop and a round of adjustments, Logano took the restart from 11th and worked his way into the top-10 during the opening laps of the second segment. On lap 242, the No. 7 made contact with Logano’s rear bumper on the exit of turn four and sent the Shell-Pennzoil Ford sliding down the frontstretch, causing damage to the right front. Logano brought his Ford Mustang to pit road for four tires and repairs under caution but went a lap down in the process. The No. 22 team continued to make adjustments to assist with Logano’s handling due to the damage sustained in the incident and was ultimately scored 28th when the checkered flag flew.
“It’s just the same stuff. You’ve got to get some points to survive. Kansas will be important. You’ve still got Talladega in there, which is quite the wild card, and then the Roval. It’s a fairly similar round to what we just went through, so you’ve got to be able to score some points. We just have to go back to Kansas this weekend and run good. We need to go up there and run in the top five and score stage points and position ourselves solid into the next two races after that.”
WHAT’S NEXT: The NASCAR Cup Series opens the Round of 12 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, September 29. Coverage of the Hollywood Casino 400 begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on USA, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
Bristol 500
