Joey Logano led 51 laps tonight before he was involved in the huge 23-car wreck in Stage 2 at EchoPark Speedway. Atlanta was not kind to many drivers tonight, including Logano and the 22 team. This NASCAR race is wide open right now.
Team Penske was controlling this race in Stage 1. Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Ryan Blaney, and the Wood Brothers鈥 Josh Berry were all up front to start the race.
Coming out of Stage 1, a few drivers flipped the stage. Logano did not. So, he and his Penske teammates were near the back of the pack on the restart to begin Stage 2. That was the wrong place for them to be.
鈥淲rong place at the wrong time, you know,鈥 Joey Logano said to TNT Sports. 鈥淲e went to try to win the stage and unforutnately we didn鈥檛 get that done, and then you know, you鈥檙e going to pay the piper and go to the back there.鈥
Joey Logano couldn鈥檛 believe his eyes watching the replay. He wasn鈥檛 sure what went wrong, but knew it wasn鈥檛 any good.
鈥淵eah, the whole field wrecked, and I鈥檓 just in the soup there. Oh, my gosh, look at that. Oh, that鈥檚 horrible.鈥
When asked what happened, Logano couldn鈥檛 put his finger on it. He seemed relatively upbeat for a driver who just got knocked out of a race by no fault of their own.
鈥淚 mean, I don鈥檛 know, like I said, it could have been a bad push. It鈥檚 kind of hard to say, right?鈥 Logano responded. 鈥淚 mean, you just see I鈥檓 in the middle of everything, so. It鈥檚 unfortunate, I think it got all of our cars. And the Penske cars were so strong, so fast. It鈥檚 unfortunate that it happens, but it鈥檚 part of the game sometimes, and as I say, sometimes you鈥檙e the ball, sometimes you鈥檙e the bat. Today, we鈥檙e the ball!鈥
After that wreck, the best Penske car is currently Austin Cindric, who is 70 laps down. Team Penske went from controlling this race to having four DNFs on the night. Not ideal.
Joey Logano has won at Atlanta twice since the reconfiguration. Despite having a great car early in this race, he won鈥檛 see the end of it. Looks like that third new-Atlanta win will have to wait.
Right now, Logano sits 10th in points. He has a win and a spot in the playoffs. But another win and a string of good runs going into the playoffs wouldn鈥檛 hurt by any means.