NASCAR Cup Series

Logano refuses to lose his head over loose wheel at Texas

Published Nov. 2, 2014 6:54 p.m. ET

foxsports

While Joey Logano's teammate Brad Keselowski was busy fighting for himself on pit road, the other Team Penske driver did most of his fighting on the track during a long and eventful Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway

Starting in the 10th spot, Logano was a factor in the top 10 for much of Sunday's AAA Texas 500, but the wheels nearly came off his championship hopes in the closing laps -- quite literally.

When the eighth caution of the day flew on Lap 295, Logano hit pit road under yellow in the fourth spot. However, on the stop multiple lug nuts fell off the wheel as the glue that holds them on the hub had yet to completely dry.

After the slow stop, Logano dropped from fourth to 23rd when the race restarted with 32 laps to go. But his troubles were not over yet.

Just after taking the green flag, Logano made contact with Marcos Ambrose and dropped even further back in the pack as he swerved the car back and forth with a flat right rear tire. Unable to hang on to the car, the No. 22 Ford spun to bring out the ninth caution of the day.

Logano brought the car back to pit road multiple times under the caution for new tires and to pull the fenders out to avoid any potential tire rubs. Due to his multiple stops, Logano restarted the race in the 26th spot with just 26 laps to go.

Yet as a string of late-race cautions led to numerous restarts, Logano made the most of his opportunity and was able to fight and claw his way through the field. When Jimmie Johnson took the checkered flag to score the win, Logano had worked his way back to the 12th spot.

With struggles for Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth, as well as a 15th-place finish for Ryan Newman, Logano was able to emerge from the wild day with the top spot in the Chase standings.

"We were able to salvage something decent out of tonight," said Logano. "We were a top-five car and possibly a winning car if scenarios played out right. I don't know what happened with the glue on the pit stop and I haven't gotten the full story yet but we had a hell of a time trying to put rear tires on the car. We lost all our track position with 30 (laps) to go and I came off the corner and the 9 (Ambrose) hit me and popped my right rear (tire) and then we spun out. We put tires back on it and then just held on until the end and got something decent out of something that could have been way worse."

A title contender throughout the entire season, Logano and his team led by crew chief Todd Gordon refused to give up when the chops were stacked against them.

"I am proud of everyone that kept their heads down and kept digging," he said. "That isn't the way we wanted to do it, that is for sure. You have to expect that though when you put yourself back there with a few laps to go. We put ourselves in a bad spot for something to happen. It is a snowball effect. We put ourselves in a bad spot and got in an even worse spot and then dug ourselves halfway out of a hole there."

Although Logano enjoys a 13-point advantage over Matt Kenseth who sits fifth in the Chase standings, there is certainly no guarantee he will be part of the Championship 4 racing for the title at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

As Kyle Busch proved at Talladega Superspeedway, even a 26-point advantage is not enough to feel secure in this new Chase format. With Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson winning two of the three Elimination Round races, a minimum of three drivers will make the Championship 4 on points.

"We've got to go to Phoenix and definitely execute a little better than we did today," Logano said, indicating they can't make any mistakes in next week's elimination race. "We've just got to do what we do. We made the most out of a pretty crappy day, and I think that's great. We probably could have executed a tad better today and had a top-five finish and possibly a win."