Start: 23rd |  Finish: 8th  | Points: 9th

Stage One: 15th  |  Stage Two: 15th 

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Joey Logano posted his 11th-career top-10 finish at Darlington Raceway in Sunday night’s Southern 500 with an eight-place result. The No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford worked its way through the field in the opening stage of the regular season finale as Logano battled some early handling issues before coming away with a 15th-place finish in Stage 1. Following a four tire stop and a round of adjustments prior to the restart, Logano began to gain track position and charged into the top-10 early in the run. The 22-crew continued to go to work on the balance during a pair of green flag pit stops in Stage 2 as Logano came away with another 15th-place effort in the second segment. With just over 50 laps to go and teams needing one more pit stop to make it to the end, a trio of cautions saw varying strategies unfold as Logano was brought to pit road – the opposite call of the leaders ahead – in an effort to gain ground on those with older tires. Logano ultimately made his way up to ninth prior to the final restart with 17 laps remaining before taking the checkered flag eighth on the night. Logano enters the Cup Series Playoffs ninth in the standings following the points reset.

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“Starting where we were, our goal was to pick them off one or two at a time and methodically move our way through the field. We were doing that. We got ourselves into the top-10 and looking pretty good. We had some issues on pit road – I’m not sure exactly what happened – but we cleaned it back up for the end there and got a top-10 out of it, at least. Not quite what we wanted with the Shell-Pennzoil Mustang but at least we recovered and got something decent out of it. We’ll move on to the playoffs and give it a run for our money and see if we can get down to the championship four.”

WHAT’S NEXT: The NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs opens the Round of 16 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, September 8. Coverage of the Quaker State 400 begins at 3 p.m. ET on USA, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

SOUTHERN 500