May 8, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Joey Logano lives out his dreams at Darlington

Smokin' Joe Logano won the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway.

Sporting a throwback paint scheme honoring his grassroots start at Silver City Quarter Midget Club in Connecticut, Logano executed a well-timed bump-and-run on William Byron to regain the lead and claim his first at the Track too Tough to Tame.

The 31-year-old racer celebrated the moment of “coming full circle” with his parents in Victory Lane.

“You're not going to put me in the wall and not get anything back,” Logano said referring to the restart with 26 laps to go. “That's how that works.

“Man, super proud of the Shell-Pennzoil team, getting a victory here in Darlington. You know what it's like; I've never won here in a Cup race before. So proud of this race team. Great execution all day long.”

While Logano was smokin’, William Byron was still fuming after leading 24 of the final 26 laps. He had to settle for 13th after meeting the chrome horn from the No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

“We were really close off of 2 and I think it spooked him and got him tight, and he was right against the wall and I got the lead,” Byron said. “He's just an idiot. He does this stuff all the time. I've seen it with other guys. He drove in there 10 miles an hour too fast, and with these Next-Gen cars, he slammed me so hard it knocked the whole right side off the car and no way to make the corner.

"Yeah, he's just a moron. He can't win a race so it does it that way. I don't know, we'll -- yeah, it was close racing on the restart. We were faster than him. Obviously, at the end, the right rear started to go away, and yeah, he didn't even make it a contest.”

Tyler Reddick finished .775-seconds behind Logano. Justin Haley, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Michael McDowell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon and Daniel Suarez rounded out the top 10.

The Lady in Black was ruthless from the start. Kyle Larson grabbed the lead from polesitter Logano on the first lap. As the field was working the third lap, a chain reaction occurred after Corey LaJoie punted Denny Hamlin in Turn 2. Brad Keselowski checked up and was tagged by Elliott resulting in the No. 6 Ford spinning out of the 28th-position.

Larson held the lead when the race returned to green on Lap 8. Logano regained the point out of the pits during the Lap 31 competition caution. While Larson was battling Kyle Busch for second in Turn 4 on Lap 54, he spun out and dropped to the rear.

Kyle Busch drove Logano tight against the Turn 1 wall following the restart to take the lead on Lap 60. Twenty laps later, Logano bolted by Busch and brought Ross Chastain with him. Logano and Chastain scrapped all the way to the end of Stage 1 with the No. 22 Penske Ford taking the green-white-checkered flag on Lap 91.

Logano continued his campaign on Lap 97. Larson restarted ninth following a solid pit stop but five laps later, his engine failed. He was scored 36th

“It just laid down,” Larson said. “Bummer because it was so good, so that’s promising. I feel like maybe we hit on something here this weekend. I hate that we’re not going to get the finish that we deserve, but I’m proud of my team for the car they brought today.”

Green-flag pit stops started on Lap132. Logano gave up the lead for service four laps later and Truex cycled to the lead on Lap 139. Tyler Reddick, who was running second, pitted on Lap 159 complaining of rubber on the tires. Eight laps later, Keselowski bounced off of the Turn 2 wall and back into Kyle Busch, who was running fifth. Busch told the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team the car was killed and left his Toyota on pit road at the Cup garage entrance.

Chastain took the lead on the Lap 168 restart and held serve through the Stage 2 win. After pit stops, he lined up alongside Denny Hamlin, who took the lead in the pits. Coming out of Turn 2, however, Chastain got loose underneath the No. 11 Toyota and slammed into the wall to trigger the seventh caution.

“We had a super strong day for our No. 1 Coca-Cola Chevy Camaro,” said Chastain, who finished 30th. “We were fighting the balance all day. We were racing with those guys for the lead. I just thought I could run the bottom there off of turn two and the exit of the patch. I just got loose on the transition and spun out.”

Logano topped Hamlin for the lead on the Lap 200 restart but the No. 11 Toyota came back nine laps later. Logano pitted from second on Lap 236. Twenty laps later, Alex Bowman hit the wall and caught fire. When the race returned to green on Lap 261, Martin Truex Jr.’s car became loose after restarting fourth. He dropped through the field, bounced off of Stenhouse and into Cole Custer coming off of Turn 2. Kurt Busch, Bubba Wallace and Erik Jones were collected in the wreck. Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe and Chase Elliott were also involved.

Logano had the lead on the restart but Byron raced him tight through the corner and seized the lead. Byron extended his advantage to over eight-car lengths but Logano refused to quit. Entering Turn 3 with just over a lap remaining, Logano laid the bumper on Byron and ran away with the lead.

“I'll tell you what, the coolest thing is getting this car into Victory Lane,” Logano said. “This is the car where it all started for me back in '95 in a Quarter Midget. Really honestly all the young kids racing out there right now, this could be you. I've got Silver City Quarter Midget Club on the back, all the cool things that went along with this car, and we got it into Victory Lane.

"This is where a lot of it started for NASCAR, so to get one here and, like I said, this quarter midget. It just goes to show all the young kids racing, whether it's quarter midgets, Bandoleros, Legends cars, Outlaw cars, whatever it may be, stick to your dreams. That was the advice that Mario Andretti gave me when I was a kid. He gave me a signed poster and it said Never Stop Chasing Your Dreams, and this is what can happen, so pretty cool.”

Logano became the 10th different winner of 2022 with his 28th career win. Elliott extended his points lead to 65 over Byron.