MARTINSVILLE, Va. — If Joey Logano wanted to defend his 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship, he first needed to win Sunday at Martinsville Speedway to advance from the Round of 8.
His No. 22 Team Penske Ford was strong but not enough to contend for the victory, leading Logano to an eighth-place finish in the Xfinity 500, eliminating him from the NASCAR Playoffs and ending his title reign.
MORE: Race results | Championship 4 set
Team Penske had won each of the last three Cup Series championships — two with Logano (2022, 2024) and one with Ryan Blaney (2023). Both fell short at Martinsville despite an impressive drive from Blaney, leaving Team Penske out of the Championship 4 for the first time since 2021.
“What we did was great,” Logano said. “Unfortunately, none of us are going to win it this year. That sucks. I don‘t know how to put it any other way. It hurts. It is what it is. It hurts because we care.”
Logano was one of the day‘s best drivers, averaging a fourth-best running position of 6.07 in Sunday‘s 500-lapper. But an earlier restart in which Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Chase Elliott cooperated to allow one to slot in front of the other entering Turn 1 left Logano trapped.
“I feel like I lost control when the Hendrick cars pulled the okie-dokie in front of me and I chose the inside lane, which put me third and that‘s what let the 12 (Blaney) get up there,” Logano said. “And then you just kind of get stuck in dirty air. I‘m kicking myself on that decision, but outside of that, we just weren‘t fast enough. That‘s the bottom line. We weren‘t good enough to drive back through either way, but I thought I would have had a chance if maybe I could have made that better earlier in the race.”
Those moments highlight the intensity of what Sunday‘s race brought. All four of Logano, Blaney, Elliott and Byron needed to win for a chance to advance to the Championship 4, and all four were running first through fourth on the race track. That was no surprise to Logano.
“I mean you kind of expected it,” Logano said. “You get to this part of the year in the Round of 8, you‘ve got eight of the best cars and that‘s what you see.”
A caution at Lap 398 brought Logano to pit road with fellow playoff contender Christopher Bell, with only four others deciding to pit. Neither were able to carve through the field on their fresher tires, though, stagnating in the back half of the top 10.
“It seemed like right at the end of that run, the top five cars started tanking,” Logano said, “but it seems like the tires would fall off and then they‘d kind of maintain for a while, and then they‘d run out of rubber and they would fall off huge. They‘d tank and by the time we passed a couple of cars — you use up a lot of tire to pass cars, then everyone is the same speed and then they started tanking right at the end, and then the caution came out. You‘ve got to do something different. You can‘t do the same.”
This year marks the end of an era with no Fords and no Team Penske entries in the Championship 4, with the guarantee that either a Hendrick or Joe Gibbs Racing car will take home the 2025 crown.
“Bummed. I don‘t know if there‘s another word for it,” Logano said. “I‘m just bummed that one of us didn‘t make it. Everyone works hard enough to deserve to be there. We just couldn‘t get the job done today, or really the last three races. That‘s what it comes down to.
“The four there deserve to be there. That‘s how I always look at it and this year we didn‘t deserve to be there.”
