Remember that horrible beginning to the 2024 season that had many Joey Logano fans wondering if he would even make the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs?
Well, that is all but a memory now, as Logano rebounded back in the rest of the regular season to make the 16 team playoff field.
On Sunday afternoon, Logano took another step toward Championship Weekend at Phoenix with an overtime win in the Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart Race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on the first week of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
The victory, Logano’s second of 2024, puts him into the Round of 12 in the NASCAR playoffs heading to Watkins Glen next week.
Video: Joey Logano punches NASCAR playoff ticket
Kyle Larson, who entered as the No. 1 seed in the postseason bracket, crashed out on Lap 56 when his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet snapped loose between Turns 1 and 2 and struck the outside retaining SAFER barrier hard. Larson was then struck from behind by last week’s winner, Chase Briscoe. Both cars were damaged too severely for either car to continue. Larson was credited with a 37th-place finish and Briscoe 38th, last in the field, with both earning just one point in Sunday’s event.
An incident at Lap 205 drew the fifth caution of the day when Chris Buescher’s No. 17 RFK Racing Ford got loose exiting Turn 2 and clipped defending champion Ryan Blaney in the left side. Blaney slid sideways and doored fellow playoff driver Martin Truex Jr. in the right side.
Buescher’s day ended with a 36th-place finish while Blaney and Truex were able to continue despite their damage.
A caution for debris with 10 laps to go set up a restart with just five laps remaining in regulation. With two laps to go, Noah Gragson spun into the inside SAFER barrier after bouncing off playoff contenders Burton and Austin Cindric, sending the race into overtime
.
On the final lap entering Turn 3 , an errant shove from Chase Elliott put Ross Chastain into the wall. The field stacked up behind, resulting in a multi car crash that involved playoff drivers Harrison Burton and Denny Hamlin.
Logano used a restart in overtime shove from Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney to score the win and advance to the field of 12.
“I really felt like when we were in the lead coming to take the white, and the caution came out when we were up top there, side by side behind me, at that point I said, I really think I got it won,” replied Logano in post-race comments. “At that point I thought everything was going to go pretty good the next lap. Keep them two-wide for another lap. I felt pretty good about that.”
For Logano, he is on a high after missing out on the NASCAR playoffs last year but still the range of emotions is there for the past champion.
“To be honest with you,” commented Logano, “when we got knocked out of the playoffs last year, it hurt a lot. It stings the rest of the playoffs every time you show up to the racetrack and you’re not in it. It hurts. It’s really frustrating. You just get mad. You just live mad for a little bit. That’s just what’s playoffs are, right? That’s what drives you, motivates you to be better ’cause you don’t want the pain. You also want the thrill of victory at the end. This is a good start, for sure.”
The Team Penske driver added in closing that “there’s a long ways to go in this playoffs. I don’t want to get stuck on saying, We won the first one, it’s going to be a cake from here. It’s not going to be easy from here. This is just an ability to breathe for two weeks as we try to get some Playoff points.”
The Round of 16 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs continues on Sept. 15 at Watkins Glen International (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
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