Joey Logano snatched victory at Texas Motor Speedway in the Würth 400 after Michael McDowell‘s strong run ended just four laps shy of the scheduled distance.
Logano’s triumph marked his first win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season and his 37th career victory, crossing the finish line 0.346 seconds ahead of Ross Chastain in overtime. This win came a week after Logano faced disqualification at Talladega.
Logano, starting from a distant 27th position, steadily worked his way through the field, showcasing a fast No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Meanwhile, McDowell, who had taken the lead on a Lap 245 restart, held it through two cautions and subsequent restarts. However, with less than four laps remaining on Lap 264, Logano made a decisive low-line pass on McDowell for the lead.
One lap later, Logano’s teammate, Ryan Blaney, also passed McDowell for second. Shortly after, McDowell lost control in the turbulent air behind Blaney and crashed into the Turn 2 wall, relegating him to a 26th-place finish.
A dejected McDowell radioed to his team, “Sorry, boys, I tried.”
In the ensuing overtime restart, Logano controlled the race, clearing Blaney through the first two corners as Chastain charged into second place from the inside lane. Logano maintained his lead over the final two laps to secure the victory, marking the second consecutive win for Team Penske, following Austin Cindric‘s Talladega win.
“The sport changes so quickly,” Logano commented after the race. “It’s crazy how you can just ride these rollercoasters and just proud of the team. Finally got (sponsor) AAA Insurance into Victory Lane. They’ve been a partner of mine since I’ve been to Penske, so 13, 14 years. I’ve yet to win with them. It was awesome to get that done here.”
Chastain also had a strong recovery drive, starting from 31st and making his presence felt in the final stages of the race. “Gosh, that’s a working day,” Chastain said. “Just no confidence in the car yesterday. Y’all saw that. Just the speed of the Trackhouse cars on Saturdays is just terrible. We’re just not confident, all three drivers… So there was one pit stop today that (crew chief) Phil Surgen and the group—it takes a ton of people back at Trackhouse and on the box here in GM at Chevrolet. They made me a confident driver all of a sudden with one adjustment. It was small stuff. It doesn’t even make sense, but after that I was a confident driver.”
Blaney finished third, while Kyle Larson, who led the most laps with 90, ultimately finished fourth after losing the lead to McDowell on the late restart. Erik Jones secured fifth place, his first Top 5 finish since the fall Talladega race last year. Rounding out the Top 10 were Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon, John Hunter Nemechek, Christopher Bell and Daniel Suarez.
The race saw several other contenders encounter issues. Denny Hamlin‘s impressive streak of 21 consecutive lead-lap finishes ended on Lap 75 due to an engine failure that resulted in flames and smoke from his No. 11 Toyota. Josh Berry, who led 41 laps, also had his strong run cut short on Lap 125 when contact with the Turn 4 wall sent his No. 21 Ford to the garage for lengthy repairs.
The 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway produced a caution-filled race with 12 incidents for a total of 73 laps. Austin Cindric, who led 60 laps, was involved in a four-car crash on Lap 247. Earlier, pole sitter Carson Hocevar, who led the initial 22 laps, also suffered a similar fate in a three-car wreck after a caution disrupted the pit stop cycle.
Despite finishing 13th, William Byron maintained his lead in the series standings, holding a 13-point advantage over Larson.
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