Joey Logano Wins First Race of Playoffs in Another NASCAR Overtime Finish

For the eleventh time this season, a NASCAR race has been decided in Overtime when Penske's Joey Logano secured the first win of the playoffs at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Two late cautions set up the final green-white-checker sprint of the race, and Daniel Suarez and Joey Logano lined up on the final restart on the front row, Suarez with his Trackhouse teammate Ross Chastain behind him on the outside and Logano with his Penske teammate, Ryan Blaney behind him on the inside.

Both drivers got pushes from their teammates on the first and second laps, with Blaney and Logano able to stay connected longer, sending Logano to a healthy lead coming off of turn four. The race ultimately ended under caution as a crash occurred mid-field.

Logano gave his first comments after the win in the shadow of his former condo, where he lived while racing Legends cars on the Atlanta Short track on Thursday night.

"It’s incredible execution by the team; when it’s playoff time, it’s our time. We always level up when it comes to playoff time," Logano told NASCAR on NBC.

This was Logano's second overtime victory of the year; his first came in the record-setting five-overtime finish at Nashville.

"I had my teammate Blaney behind me, and it really helped out on the last lap to be able to make sure a Penske car won and ultimately moved on to the next round. A good day for all of the Penske cars; we got a lot of stage points as well."

Blaney, who won the first stage, day was almost lost after contact with Chris Buescher pushed the No. 12 driver down the field with plenty of damage. Blaney was surprised that he could make it back up through the field to help his teammate secure the victory.

"Honestly, I can’t believe we got back up where we did. The No.12 boys did a great job fixing it, and I’m surprised it didn’t have more damage than it did. From my seat, I got drilled in the left rear, or the door, where it hit me."

Blaney momentarily considered going three-wide on the front stretch to attempt to steal the win from his teammate but decided not to push his luck and settle for a third-place finish and good points day. Blaney entered the weekend fifth in the playoffs and left second behind Logano.

Suarez had to settle for second after almost sweeping Atlanta. He secured his playoff position with the closest three-wide finish in NASCAR history in the third race of the season.

"I was pretty confident that the top was going to be better," Suarez said about his choice on the restart."

At the end of the day, the Penske were able to race together better than the Trackhouse duo.

"We had a great launch, but we just got disconnected too early. That really hurt us."

Before the final restart, Ty Gibbs was chasing his first win, leading while being challenged by Suarez and Kyle Busch; when he fell out of the top three, he could not defend a good finish and slid to 12th, one place ahead of Brad Keselowski. Gibbs sits one point above the cut line ahead of the same driver behind him in the race.

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