Start: 36th
Finish: 8th

Stage One: 15th
Stage Two: 10th

Points: 13th

Despite starting at the tail-end of the field in a backup car due to an incident in Saturday’s practice session, Joey Logano raced his way to an eighth-place finish Sunday afternoon at Homestead-Miami Speedway, marking his first top-10 finish since 2019 at the 1.5-mile oval. Logano fought a loose-handling Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang during the opening run, but crew chief Paul Wolfe kept Logano on the track until the very end of the first green-flag pit cycle as he made his way up to second in the running order before hitting pit road on lap 39. Logano was scored 27th following the four-tire stop and a round of adjustments but managed to stay on the lead lap as he charged all the way up to 15th on the leaderboard by the time the caution flag flew on lap 77 to bring Stage 1 to a close. After restarting Stage 2 from 15th, Logano reported a tight-handling condition on the opening laps of the ensuing run while working the top lane along the wall, but managed to maintain his position up until the next round of green flag pit stops began to cycle. Wolfe brought Logano to pit road on lap 114 before the Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang was scored 11th by the time the cycle was complete. Logano broke into the top-10 with 15 laps to go in the second segment and ultimately came away with a 10th-place finish in Stage 2. The No. 22 crew gained Logano four spots on pit road following a four-tire stop at the stage break as he lined up to take the green flag from the inside of row three. Despite struggles in dirty air, Logano was scored eighth at the time of the caution on lap 213 in the middle of the green flag pit cycle. After the red flag was lifted, Logano followed the leaders down pit road for four-tire stops as the field lined up to take the green. The caution flag flew yet again on lap 235 prompting the final pit stops of the afternoon as the No. 22 team reeled off another quick, four-tire stop to set up Logano to restart fifth with 25 laps to go. He worked his way up to fourth in the running order during the opening laps of the final restart, but ultimately took the checkered flag eighth for his 16th top-10 finish of the season.

“Can’t say enough about the effort from this 22 team this weekend. To come away with a top-10 – and competing for a top-five late – after starting in the back brought the weekend to a close on a high note for us. Our Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang was really strong running the wall and we made up a lot of ground up there. Really proud of the result and looking forward to finishing the year strong.”

 

WHAT’S NEXT: The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, October 29 for the final race in the NASCAR Playoffs Round of 8 and the penultimate race of the 2023 Cup Series season. Coverage of the Xfinity 500 begins at 2:00 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN Radio and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.