FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) 鈥 Joey Logano quickly flipped the script for Team Penske.
The focus after this win can be on, well, the for NASCAR’s reigning Cup Series champion. Not like last week following Austin Cindric’s victory at Talladega, when Logano had an on the radio directed at his teammate during that race and then afterward had what would have been a fifth-place finish disqualified because of a missing nut and loose bolt on the spoiler during the postrace inspection.
鈥淚t’s nice to change the storyline,鈥 Logano said.
Logano recovered from starting 27th at the 1 1/2-mile Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday in the 11th Cup race of the season, and surged ahead after the restart in overtime with teammate Ryan Blaney to his outside.
鈥淲e paid the price from last week in qualifying, going out early, and now you have a bad pit stall. OK, I just got to (get a) top 10, top five and start clicking those off, getting some points, I need that,” Logano said. 鈥淭hen just found ourselves in position to win. Glad we capitalized on that. The goal was to get some momentum rolling. I feel like just get some stuff going, juices flowing again. Yeah, turned out well.鈥
All three Penske drivers led laps at Texas. was in front for 60 laps and won the first stage, but finished 25th after getting caught up in a late-race crash.
Logano and Blaney were on the front row for the after the race’s 12th caution. Logano was the control car for the green-white-checkered finish, even though Blaney was actually shown as the leader when they reached the line. Blaney finished third, still his best of the season, after Logano and Ross Chastain both got in front of him on the final run.
Walter Czarnecki, the team’s vice chairman, dismissed the notion that back-to-back wins brought a sigh of relief.
鈥淩ather, it reduces the pressure. The fact that here we are ... 11th race of the year, and we got two cars in already for the playoffs. So it allows the team to, I won鈥檛 say freewheel, but to be able to do some things that perhaps they might not have been otherwise to do,鈥 Czarnecki said. 鈥淣ow, the mission is to get Ryan Blaney into the playoffs.鈥
Blaney is actually the team’s highest-ranked driver at seventh in the Cup standings after moving up a spot following his best finish of the season. Logano is ninth and Cindric 14th.
鈥淚鈥檓 really proud of this team. Team Penske has been bringing good, competitive cars for the first 11 races. We鈥檝e been in the hunt in every one of them. We鈥檝e qualified very well. Had a chance to win some other races. Now, two in a row. Hope that鈥檚 a real momentum builder for us,鈥 Czarnecki said. 鈥淚f we weren鈥檛 bringing good cars or there were other issues, that鈥檚 one thing, but we鈥檝e been there. So Blaney鈥檚 time is coming, too.鈥
There are before the playoffs begin Aug. 31. The Cup Series is at Kansas on Sunday, followed by the non-points All-Star Race. Then comes Charlotte, where Blaney has won before. There are also races left at Pocono and Iowa, other places he has driven to Victory Lane.
鈥淚 think Blaney surely could have won multiple races,鈥 Paul Wolfe, Logano’s crew chief, said after Sunday’s race. 鈥淚 really appreciate that relationship we have amongst our team and specifically the 12. We work very closely together, and it鈥檚 kind of ironic how the end of the race we were racing the 12 for the win.
鈥淭he way the racing is with limited track time these days and things like that, I think it鈥檚 very important the teamwork aspect and how well we鈥檙e able to help one another to ultimately make us better on race day and as the race goes on,鈥 he said. “We continue to work together.鈥
___
AP auto racing:
To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.
Sign in or register for free to join the Conversation