Joey Logano dismisses inspection issues in run-up to NASCAR Cup title race
Joey Logano said his NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race effort is going according to plan—overcoming a couple of glitches in Saturday’s pre-race inspection at Phoenix Raceway.
Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford failed technical inspection twice before qualifying, at a price. Car chief Tommy Ellis was ejected from the track, and the No. 22 team lost pit selection, with the stall he’ll use assigned at NASCAR’s discretion.
Nevertheless, Logano qualified second for Sunday’s Championship Race, behind only non-Playoff driver Martin Truex Jr.
Logano’s car made it through tech on the third try, limiting the potential damage. The two-time champion dismissed the inspection issues as something over which he has no control.
“There’s nothing I can do about it, right?” Logano said. “I have to focus on my job. That’s out of my hands, what goes on with that stuff.
“So obviously when it comes down to this, everyone is pushing and trying on get as much as they can. We thought we fixed it enough the first time, and we didn’t. Then you have to fix it even more, to really make sure you make it through.
“So just pushing the edge and just didn’t quite get by with what where we thought was OK, but obviously it was too far.”
Tyler Reddick shows improvement from less-than-stellar practice session
Understandably, Tyler Reddick has been the most subdued of the Championship 4 drivers this week.
For one thing, he’s the only one of the four making his first run as a title-eligible driver in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race (3 p.m. ET Sunday on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
For another, Reddick was 21st fastest in Friday’s final Cup Series practice, trailing Championship 4 rivals Ryan Blaney (first), William Byron (fourth) and Joey Logano (ninth).
“Yeah, I think we went the wrong way,” Reddick acknowledged. “We were able to understand it and learn from it. You never want to go through a practice and have it go that way, but we understood why we got where we did and why the speed kind of went away.”
Reddick’s 23XI Racing team made adjustments after the practice session and apparently found a productive direction. Reddick made the final round of time trials on Saturday and earned the 10th starting position for the main event.
The only disappointment for Reddick was qualifying behind eighth-place starter William Byron. With second-fastest qualifier Joey Logano penalized for inspection issues, Byron gets first pick of pit stalls, with the obvious choice being stall No. 1 at the exit from pit road.
The advantage of that pit box may be mitigated by the moving of the camera (timing) line 74 feet farther from the exit from the box.
“There’s a lot of racing left to be had, right?” Reddick said. “Today was an important step in that. Obviously, we wanted to out-qualify the 24 (Byron) to get the best pit stall. Arguably, who knows if one is as big of an advantage as it is in years past with the camera moving, but yeah, just trying to stay focused on all that.
“Obviously, I was hoping I was going to hang on and beat the 24. So, I mean, there’s just a little bit of that. We have the rest of the day today to kind of unwind and re-center and get ready to go for Sunday.”
Martin Truex Jr. is retiring—sort of—but he won’t be gone for long
After a stellar career that has spanned 21 NASCAR Cup Series seasons, Martin Truex Jr. is retiring from full-time racing at the end of the 2024 season.
That doesn’t mean, however, that we’ve seen the last of the 44-year-old from Mayetta, New Jersey. Truex already has plans to race in the 2025 Daytona 500 with Cole Pearn as his crew chief.
“Oh, yeah, I’m going to be there, racing the Cup car,” Truex said Saturday during an interview on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I’m retiring, and I’m going to be at the very next race. So I’m not really sure what’s going on.
“But the thing is, when all these guys pack up to go to Mexico City, I’ll be on the couch somewhere or out on the boat fishing. Those are the days I’m looking forward to.”
Truex and Pearn teamed up at Furniture Row Racing and won the series championship in 2017. With Pearn on his pit box at FRR and Joe Gibbs Racing, Truex amassed 24 of his 34 career victories.
Next year’s Daytona 500 appearance will be Truex’s first foray into a more relaxed form of competition.
“This is a happy time for me,” said Truex, who won the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. “I’m excited about the future. I’m not done racing. I’m not hanging it up. I’m just going to do it for fun again… With the pressure and the stress of this, being in the Cup Series and all that comes with that, there’s a lot of weight on your shoulders, and it’s hard to enjoy.
“Of course, when you win a bunch of races in a year, you look back and you say, ‘Man, that was awesome.’ What people miss is what it takes to do it, to sustain that level of competitiveness over the years. It takes a lot.
“It’s every day. It’s seven days a week. That’s all you ever think about, and you sacrifice a lot. I’m looking forward to racing the way I used to and enjoying it and just going back and having fun the old-school way.”
Stewart-Haas drivers will head in different directions after the organization’s closure
This weekend marks the final NASAR Cup Series entry for the four-car Stewart-Haas Racing team. Its drivers—Josh Berry, Chase Briscoe, Noah Gragson and Ryan Preece—will compete elsewhere next year, some with their futures secured, some still to be determined.
Berry, who scored a pair of top-five finishes and four top-10s after succeeding retired champion Kevin Harvick in the No. 4 SHR Ford, will move to the famed No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford next season.
Briscoe, the most successful of the four current SHR drivers and the only one to score a NASCAR Cup Series victory, will move to Joe Gibbs Racing, replacing former champion Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 19 Toyota.
Briscoe earned two wins in his four years at the NASCAR Cup Series level at Phoenix in 2022 and Darlington, S.C. this year earning a dramatic walk-off entry into the Playoffs.
Noah Gragson, who moves to Front Row Motorsports in 2025, scored seven top-10 finishes in his only season driving the SHR No. 10 Ford, highlighted by a career best third place at Talladega, Ala., this Spring. Ryan Preece competed for two seasons in the No. 41 SHR Ford, scoring a career-best finish of fourth at Nashville this year.
“To know that it’s all coming to an end is definitely bittersweet,’’ Briscoe said. “I was telling the guys last weekend at Martinsville, when we were eight days away from the company literally locking the doors, and we were still able to bring a car that, honestly, should’ve sat on the pole.
“That’s just a testament to everybody, and it’s just really, really cool and special that they’ve continued to put in that effort given the circumstances. But it’s going to be a tough weekend at Phoenix for a lot of different people and for a lot of different reasons.
“Hopefully, we can go out on top. That would be the coolest thing, if you could win the final race. And for me, just this whole season’s been really cool, just to obviously get a win in the final season for SHR and to get the 14 car at least where it’s competitive in its final season.’’
— NASCAR Wire Service —