DAYTONA BEACH, Fla: Joey Logano was so close.
The driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang for Team Penske was in contention for his second DAYTONA 500 victory on Sunday at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, but when it came down to crunch time in double overtime, Logano got beat by the a pair of dirt racers that stook together.
On the Lap 211 restart, Logano, with the help of Kyle Busch utilized the outside lane to attempt to work past the cars of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Christopher Bell.
Taking the white flag, Stenhouse Jr. barely held an advantage but as the cars screamed through Turn 1, Kyle Larson got turned in the middle lane by 23XI Racing’s Travis Pastrana who was hit from Aric Almirola.
The contract triggered a multi-car accident that collected the vehicles of Kyle Busch and Bubba Wallace Jr. who were the two cars in the top lane attempting to propel Logano’s Ford Mustang into the race lead.
The hard impact into the outside wall for Larson and Brad Keselowski immediately forced NASCAR to throw the caution where it was quickly determined that Stenhouse Jr.’s car was ahead of Logano at the time the caution flag came out.
The reining Cup Series champion settled for second, his best finish in the “Great American Race” since finishing fourth in the 2019 edition.
“Second is the worst, man. You’re so close,” said Logano after the race. “Leading the white flag lap there, I was up front. Kyle (Busch) gave me a good push and, yeah, you’re watching in the mirror and you’re three wide across there. I felt like the three wide was going a hurt a lane; looked like Kyle was getting pushed ahead, and then Ricky started getting pushed ahead.”
On the second overtime attempt, Logano admitted that his car did not handle as well on the bottom lane and he likely would have ended the race wrecked if he chosen that lane for the Lap 211 restart.
“I knew if I went to the bottom my car didn’t handle good enough,” Logano explained. “I already got pushed off the bottom once and I thought, if I go down there I’m probably going to get wrecked, and I don’t know if I can get down there in time to throw the block and so I didn’t want to wreck my car either.
“Then you don’t expect them to wreck either. You think you’re racing to the checkered flag and you put yourself in the best position to try to win at the start-finish line, and just caution came out — you wish you could race to the end. Obviously you can’t when they wreck that much.”
Winning the Daytona 500 in 2015, Logano had a brief flashback of what it meant to win the sport’s Super Bowl event rekindling the emotions of his ninth career NASCAR Cup Series win and wanting to experience that all over again a second time eight years later.
“Congratulations to Ricky,” Logano offered. “There’s nothing like winning the Daytona 500. That’s why it stings so much finishing second.”
Even though Logano did not achieve his 32nd Cup Series triumph, he was still proud of his Team Penske outfit for picking up right where he left off after being crowned his second Cup Series championship at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway this past November.
“Still proud of the team, still proud of the effort coming off the championship last year and bringing this Shell-Pennzoil Mustang back toward the front and getting a Ford close to the front,” sounded Logano. “Wish it was in Victory Lane, though.”
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