Joey Logano started on the pole and had a No. 12 PPG Paints Ford Mustang fast enough to run inside the top three all day long, but succumbed to an engine issue with just under 60 laps to go to finish 34th in Saturday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) race at Texas Motor Speedway. Logano earned his 33rd-career NXS pole earlier on Saturday and his second-straight this season (Auto Club Speedway), then jumped out to an quick lead on what proved to be a one-groove track. Logano led the first 19 laps before falling back to third, where he would ride until the end of stage one. Logano slipped back following the first round of pit stops as several teams elected to take two tires and crew chief Brian Wilson called for four on the No. 12. It didn’t take long for Logano to race back to second and he would run in the top-five until another round of pit stops just before the end of the second stage. For the rest of his race, Logano would run third to Erik Jones and teammate Ryan Blaney. However, on lap 142, Logano radioed in that he thought his No. 12 PPG Paints Mustang had dropped a cylinder. After a couple more laps and a diagnosis on pit road, the team elected to pull the car behind the wall and retire from the event. The 34th-palce finish is just the fourth time in Logano’s 162-career NXS races that he’s finished 30th or worse.

“I think we dropped a valve or something like that. Maybe lost a cylinder. It is just a matter of time before it was going to make a big explosion and wreck our race car. This car doesn’t race for points so it is win or nothing for us. It is unfortunate because we were running third and really good on the long run. We weren’t good on the short run and we lost a lot of time there. I was hoping for a caution at the end and a good pit stop to put us in position to win. Things happen sometimes. It is part of racing. As long as it is today, not tomorrow.”