July 1, 2024 | By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service

Joey Logano wins at Nashville after a record five overtime restarts

LEBANON, Tenn. — It took a record five overtime restarts to settle Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, but two-time series champion Joey Logano finally emerged as the race winner, securing his first win of the season and a bid into the 2024 Playoffs in dramatic fashion.

With race leaders falling out of contention with each late race restart – 31 extra laps and 15 total cautions on the day – Logano and his Team Penske team gambled that his No. 22 Ford Mustang had enough fuel for a final push to the checkered flag. Ultimately Logano’s Mustang turned 110 laps with that final tank of fuel.

The reward was the trip to Victory Lane Sunday – the first for Ford at the 1.333-mile Nashville track – and a coveted ticket to the Playoffs for Logano and team.

Logano finished .068-seconds ahead of Spire Motorsports rookie Zane Smith – the best career showing for the former NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series champion. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick was third, followed by Stewart-Haas Racing’s Ryan Preece and RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher.

The 34-year-old Logano said he wasn’t sure how much fuel was left or if he would definitely make it to the checkered, “I know into [turn] three, my fuel light came on and it stumbled across the line, so that was definitely all of it.

’We’ve got to give a lot of credit to Roush Yates, not only building horsepower but building fuel milage – that’s what won today,’’ said Logano, who still had enough fuel to do a brief victory burnout in front of the sold-out Nashville crowd that stayed to the epic end, despite a one hour, 21-minute red flag for rain only 136 laps into the 331-lap race.

“So proud of this team. It’s been a stressful few weeks trying to get in the Playoffs so being able to win here is huge for our season. Felt great to get that. It feels good for our team.

“So much pressure. Trying to make the Playoffs is not easy these days in these Next Gen cars and everyone is so evenly matched,’’ he added. “I made a lot of mistakes, even some tonight and it’s nice to be able to overcome. .. This is a much-needed win for sure.’’

His crew chief Paul Wolfe confirmed Logano’s Mustang ultimately ran out of gas.

“We just got to the point. .. we’ve gotten this far, let’s just stick with it,’’ Wolfe said of the team staying out instead of pitting for fuel. “Fortunately it was enough, but he did run out on the last lap.’’

Even before all the extra laps, the race’s scheduled ending featured an amazing duel between pole-winner Denny Hamlin racing for what would have been a series best fourth victory and the 2023 Nashville winner Ross Chastain, racing for his first win of the season. For 30 laps they raced in front of the field with Hamlin cutting into Chastain’s lead before finally overtaking him with seven laps remaining in the originally scheduled 300-lap race.

But just as Hamlin and Chastain were seemingly settling the trophy, Logano’s teammate Austin Cindric spun out with four laps remaining, forcing the first overtime.

Hamlin and Chastain restarted next to one another on the first overtime, but Chastain was hit from behind by Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, whose Chevrolet’s splitter hit the apron and unintentionally moved into Chastain’s car. The accident eliminated Chastain and Hamlin had to hold off the field in two subsequent overtimes before having to pit himself for fuel – a decision the team struggled to make, but ultimately were forced to do.

That left Logano and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe on the front row for the fourth overtime restart. Smith had moved into second place around Briscoe when the final caution came out for SHR’s Josh Berry.

Only one (Reddick) of the top-11 cars lined up for the fifth overtime restart had won a race this season, but a highly motivated Logano got a stellar jump on the field at the drop of the flag and was able to keep the challengers behind with other incidents happening as the checkered flag flew.

“The winning side of me is pissed with the second place, especially after hearing the 22 [Logano] was going to run out for the past 10 laps, I don’t know how many restarts,’’ Smith said of his runner-up showing.

“But no, I wouldn’t have done anything different. I felt like I chose the right lane and it’s crazy how much different these cars drive with cleaner air. Just proud of our strategy there.’’

Logano’s Team Penske teammate and reigning series champ Blaney finished sixth, followed by 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, Larson, Kaulig Racing’s Daniel Hemric and SHR’s Noah Gragson.

There were nine race leaders and 20 lead changes on the day.

For much of the early day, last week’s winner Christopher Bell looked like he was positioned to earn the first back-to-back victories of his career. But pit strategy put Bell’s No. 20 JGR Toyota the farthest back in the field. He spun out alone in Turn 2, racing in 15th place on the restart with 74 laps remaining.

Bell swept the opening two stage wins to lead the series with nine stage victories on the season and was out front a race-best 131 of the first 229 laps  – more than twice as many laps as any other driver in the field at that point.

‘Just put myself in a bad spot, lost my cool, got back in traffic with all those yellow flags and put myself in a really bad spot going into [turn] one,’’ Bell said.

Larson’s eighth place showing was good enough to keep the NASCAR Cup Series championship lead by 20-points over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott, who was among those who had an incident on the race’s final lap. Hamlin is 43 points back with eight races remaining to decide the regular season champion.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to the Chicago Street Course for the Grant Park 165 next Sunday (4:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen is the defending race winner – claiming the trophy in his first ever series start.


NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 19
Race Results for the Ally 400 - Sunday, June 30, 2024
Nashville Superspeedway - Nashville, TN - 1.33 - Mile Concrete

Total Race Length - 331 Laps - 440.23 Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Sunday, 6/30/2024 @ 09:50 PM Eastern

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 26 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 331   40 Running 1 9 5
2 36 71 Zane Smith # Jockey Outdoors by Luke Bryan Chevrolet 331   35 Running  
3 6 45 Tyler Reddick Monster Energy Toyota 331 3 2 51 Running 5 16
4 22 41 Ryan Preece HaasTooling.com Ford 331   33 Running  
5 9 17 Chris Buescher BuildSubmarines.com Ford 331 8 9 37 Running  
6 18 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Ideal Garage Doors Ford 331  8 34 Running 2 26
7 24 23 Bubba Wallace Columbia Sportswear Company Toyota 331 10  31 Running  
8 4 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 331 4 3 44 Running  
9 37 31 Daniel Hemric Cirkul Chevrolet 331   28 Running  
10 16 10 Noah Gragson Bass Pro Shops Winchester Ford 331  10 28 Running  
11 28 16 AJ Allmendinger(i) Celsius Chevrolet 331   0 Running 1 1
12 1 11 Denny Hamlin FedEx Toyota 331 2 4 41 Running 3 70
13 33 51 Justin Haley Pinnacle Home Improvement Ford 331   24 Running  
14 12 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 331   23 Running  
15 10 2 Austin Cindric Discount Tire Ford 331   22 Running  
16 15 77 Carson Hocevar # Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet 331   21 Running  
17 32 38 Todd Gilliland gener8tor Ford 331   20 Running  
18 13 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 331  6 24 Running  
19 7 24 William Byron Valvoline Chevrolet 331 7  22 Running  
20 21 7 Corey LaJoie Garner Trucking Chevrolet 331   17 Running  
21 19 14 Chase Briscoe Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford 331   16 Running  
22 31 99 Daniel Suarez Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet 331   15 Running  
23 8 54 Ty Gibbs Interstate Batteries Toyota 331 6  19 Running 1 2
24 17 19 Martin Truex Jr. Bass Pro Shops Toyota 331 9 7 19 Running  
25 5 6 Brad Keselowski Consumer Cellular Ford 330 5 5 24 Running  
26 2 4 Josh Berry # Overstock.com Ford 327   11 Accident  
27 27 8 Kyle Busch zone/Thorntons Chevrolet 319   10 Accident  
28 25 21 Harrison Burton DEX Imaging Ford 312   9 Accident  
29 29 50 * Corey Heim(i) Mobil 1 50th Anniversary Toyota 312   0 Accident  
30 23 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Artesano Hawaiian/Oscar Mayer Chevrolet 312   7 Accident  
31 35 42 John Hunter Nemechek Massey Motor Freight Toyota 306   6 Accident  
32 11 3 Austin Dillon BREZTRI Chevrolet 305   5 Accident  
33 20 1 Ross Chastain Busch Country Chevrolet 304   4 Accident 1 45
34 34 43 Erik Jones Family Dollar Toyota 287   3 Suspension  
35 14 34 Michael McDowell Love's/Fleetguard Ford 239   2 Transmission 1 31
36 3 20 Christopher Bell DEWALT Concrete Solutions Toyota 227 1 1 21 Accident 6 131 2
37 30 15 Riley Herbst(i) Monster Energy Zero Sugar Ford 201   0 Accident  
38 38 66 * Chad Finchum(i) Cooper&Hunter Ford 132   0 Electrical  

Time of Race: 4 Hrs, 3 Mins, 54 Secs. Average Speed: 108.298 MPH Margin of Victory: 0.068 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 20, 11, 45, 5, 6, 54, 24, 17, 19, 23
Stage 2 Top 10: 20, 45, 5, 11, 6, 9, 19, 12, 17, 10

Caution Flags: 15 for 79 laps; Laps: 92-97 (Stage 1 Conclusion [41]); 117-122 (No. 42 Spin Turn 4 [16]); 127-130 (No. 54, 48 Spin Frontstretch [43]); 137-140 (Weather [Red flag 1:21:20] [8]); 187-192 (Stage 2 Conclusion [42]); 203-208 (No. 15 Incident Turn 2 [42]); 210-213 (No. 43 Incident Turn 2 [42]); 220-225 (No. 9 Incident Frontstetch [43]); 229-234 (No. 20 Incident Turn 2 [43]); 244-248 (No. 6 Incident Turn 2 [None]); 300-304 (No. 2, 10 Incident Backstretch [12]); 306-312 (No. 5, 1, 54, 8, 3, 24 Turn 1 [16]); 314-319 (No. 41, 50, 6, 47, 4, 51 Incident Backstretch [2]); 321-324 (No. 8, 9, 5 Incident Turn 1 [6]); 326-329 (No. 4 Incident Turn 4 [6]).

Lead Changes: 20 among 9 drivers; D. Hamlin 1-16; C. Bell 17-38; T. Gibbs 39-40; T. Reddick 41-45; M. McDowell 46-76; C. Bell 77-92; D. Hamlin 93-117; C. Bell 118-187; T. Reddick 188; C. Bell 189-208; T. Reddick 209-213; C. Bell 214; T. Reddick 215; C. Bell 216-217; T. Reddick 218-221; R. Blaney 222-233; A. Allmendinger(i) 234; R. Blaney 235-248; R. Chastain 249-293; D. Hamlin 294-322; J. Logano 323-331.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: July 7, 2024 - Chicago Street Race

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