FORT WORTH, Texas — (AP) — Joey Logano quickly flipped the script for Team Penske.
The focus after this win can be on, well, the first win this season for NASCAR's reigning Cup Series champion. Not like last week following Austin Cindric's victory at Talladega, when Logano had an expletive-laden rant 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.
“It's nice to change the storyline,” 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.
“We 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. “Then 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.”
All three Penske drivers led laps at Texas. Cindric 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 final restart 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.
“Rather, 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’t say freewheel, but to be able to do some things that perhaps they might not have been otherwise to do,” Czarnecki said. “Now, the mission is to get Ryan Blaney into the playoffs.”
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.
“I’m really proud of this team. Team Penske has been bringing good, competitive cars for the first 11 races. We’ve been in the hunt in every one of them. We’ve qualified very well. Had a chance to win some other races. Now, two in a row. Hope that’s a real momentum builder for us,” Czarnecki said. “If we weren’t bringing good cars or there were other issues, that’s one thing, but we’ve been there. So Blaney’s time is coming, too.”
There are 15 points races left 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.
“I think Blaney surely could have won multiple races,” Paul Wolfe, Logano's crew chief, said after Sunday's race. “I really appreciate that relationship we have amongst our team and specifically the 12. We work very closely together, and it’s kind of ironic how the end of the race we were racing the 12 for the win.
“The way the racing is with limited track time these days and things like that, I think it’s very important the teamwork aspect and how well we’re able to help one another to ultimately make us better on race day and as the race goes on,” he said. "We continue to work together.”
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