Start: 9th
Finish: 8th

Stage One: 11th
Stage Two: 27th

Points: 10th

Joey Logano picked up three spots in the first three laps of the inaugural Chicago Street Course race despite a single-file start to begin the afternoon. Battling the damp conditions on wet weather tires, Logano was shuffled out of the top-10 by the halfway point of Stage 1 before settling for an 11th-place finish in the opening segment. Logano continued to struggle with overall grip as green-flag pit stops began to cycle and made contact with one of the tire barriers before making his way to pit road. The damage proved to be insignificant when the No. 22 team surveyed the Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang on pit road on lap 22 and sent Logano back out on the course with four slick tires. While running in the top-20 when the caution flag flew on lap 31, several cars stayed out but the No. 22 team called Logano to pit road for four tires and a round of adjustments. The strategy call ended up paying off in a big way as Logano took the green flag from fourth in lap 49 after a majority of the field pitted under caution. Following a multi-car incident shortly after the restart, the race was shortened to 75 laps, allowing Logano to make it the rest of the way on fuel. Logano held steady in the top-five of the running order as the laps clicked off but fell to sixth when the caution came out on lap 67. Another on-track incident with two laps to go set up a green-white-checkered finish and Logano was able to fend off those on fresher tires to secure an eighth-place finish, marking his ninth top-10 showing of the season.

“It was hard to race. I mean, there were some passes made. It’s not probably any harder than any other track that we go to. Overall, I’d say this was a success. I’d say more cautions than normal on a road course because of the walls, but hey, we got it in today. That was good.”

WHAT’S NEXT: The NASCAR Cup Series makes its second trip to Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 9 for the Quaker State 400. Coverage begins at 7 pm E.T. on USA, PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.