Joey Logano Wins Record NASCAR Marathon in Nashville

Multiple overtimes are expected in superspeedway races, but a record five overtimes in Sunday’s Ally 400 at the 1.33-mile, concrete Nashville Superspeedway caught everyone by surprise.

With 31 overtime laps on the board, seven of the top 10 drivers charging to the checkered flag had not yet won this year. That included eventual winner Joey Logano, whose fuel starved Ford stumbled as he received the checkered flag. Logano’s victory means all three Team Penske cars have now qualified for the playoffs.

“It’s been a hard season and being on that cut line, I tell you it sucks,” said Logano, who won the NASCAR All-Star race in May at North Wilkesboro Speedway. “It’s just not fun. It’s been a stressful few weeks trying to get into the playoffs. With seven weeks to go until the playoffs it gives us a chance to breathe for a second and start just kind of working on our car a little bit differently and just sleep better.”

Logano’s 33rd career Cup victory and 31st in a Ford was Team Penske’s 96th Cup Series win with Ford. It was Ford’s 731st victory in NASCAR’s Cup Series.

The numerous overtimes in Sunday’s race began after Austin Cindric spun on the backstretch following a collision with Noah Gragson on lap 299 of the scheduled 300-lap race. At that time, Denny Hamlin possessed a comfortable lead over second place Ross Chastain, whom he had passed for the No. 1 position with seven laps remaining. During the 11^th caution flag, crew chief Chris Gabehart told Hamlin his Toyota had enough fuel for one overtime.

Under NASCAR rules, the field must receive the white flag. If a wreck occurs before the leader receives the white flag, another restart is required.

When the race restarted in the first overtime, Hamlin was leading and Logano was eighth. Kyle Larson triggered a six-car incident in the first turn when he clipped Chastain. Others involved included Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, and Austin Dillon.

With the 12th caution flag occurring so quickly, Hamlin remained in the lead for the second overtime restart. This time Logano restarted fifth. Once again, there was a multi-car crash before the field could reach the white flag. This one occurred on the backstretch and involved Ryan Preece, Corey Heim, Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Josh Berry and Justin Haley.

For the third overtime restart, the top five, respectively, were Hamlin, Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Busch and Logano. This time as the green flag waved, Larson’s Chevrolet ran out of fuel, stacking up the outside line. That caused Chase Elliott to run into the rear of Busch and spin his Chevrolet into the wall heading into turn one. During the 14th caution period, Hamlin and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Truex pitted for fuel. This moved Logano into the lead for the fourth overtime restart.

Logano and Chase Briscoe restarted on the front row and the two were dueling for the lead when Berry spun in the fourth turn.

“We had it won off of (turn) four and then the caution came out,” Logano said. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, but you can’t pit. You’ve kind of got to go for it.’”

When the fifth overtime restart occurred, Logano got a comfortable jump on Briscoe. However, Reddick charged from fifth where he restarted and forced Logano to block him and rookie Zane Smith at the finish line.

“He (Reddick) had tires there, so just had to make different moves and go different places,” Logano said. “I went into (turn) three, and I saw that (fuel) light, and I’m like, oh no, I’m running out off of (turn) four. It just stumbled and spit and sputtered across the line. Somehow, I had enough for a little bit of a burnout, but I’m going to need a push back.”

Smith edged Reddick for second and finished 0.068 second behind Logano in the race that was interrupted by rain for 1 hour, 21 minutes.

NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400

Nashville Superspeedway

Sunday, Results

1. (26) Joey Logano, Ford, 331.

2. (36) Zane Smith #, Chevrolet, 331.

3. (6) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 331.

4. (22) Ryan Preece, Ford, 331.

5. (9) Chris Buescher, Ford, 331.

6. (18) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 331.

7. (24) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 331.

8. (4) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 331.

9. (37) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet, 331.

10. (16) Noah Gragson, Ford, 331.

11. (28) AJ Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, 331.

12. (1) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 331.

13. (33) Justin Haley, Ford, 331.

14. (12) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 331.

15. (10) Austin Cindric, Ford, 331.

16. (15) Carson Hocevar #, Chevrolet, 331.

17. (32) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 331.

18. (13) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 331.

19. (7) William Byron, Chevrolet, 331.

20. (21) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 331.

21. (19) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 331.

22. (31) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 331.

23. (8) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 331.

24. (17) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 331.

25. (5) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 330.

26. (2) Josh Berry #, Ford, Accident, 327.

27. (27) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, Accident, 319.

28. (25) Harrison Burton, Ford, Accident, 312.

29. (29) Corey Heim(i), Toyota, Accident, 312.

30. (23) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, Accident, 312.

31. (35) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, Accident, 306.

32. (11) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 305.

33. (20) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, Accident, 304.

34. (34) Erik Jones, Toyota, Suspension, 287.

35. (14) Michael McDowell, Ford, Transmission, 239.

36. (3) Christopher Bell, Toyota, Accident, 227.

37. (30) Riley Herbst(i), Ford, Accident, 201.

38. (38) Chad Finchum(i), Ford, Electrical, 132.

Average Speed of Race Winner: 108.298 mph.

Time of Race: 4 Hrs, 3 Mins, 54 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.068 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 15 for 79 laps.

Lead Changes: 20 among 9 drivers.

Lap Leaders: D. Hamlin 1-16;C. Bell 17-38;T. Gibbs 39-40;T. Reddick 41-45;M. McDowell 46-76;C. Bell 77-92;D. Hamlin 93-117;C. Bell 118-187;T. Reddick 188;C. Bell 189-208;T. Reddick 209-213;C. Bell 214;T. Reddick 215;C. Bell 216-217;T. Reddick 218-221;R. Blaney 222-233;A. Allmendinger(i) 234;R. Blaney 235-248;R. Chastain 249-293;D. Hamlin 294-322;J. Logano 323-331.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Christopher Bell 6 times for 131 laps; Denny Hamlin 3 times for 70 laps; Ross Chastain 1 time for 45 laps; Michael McDowell 1 time for 31 laps; Ryan Blaney 2 times for 26 laps; Tyler Reddick 5 times for 16 laps; Joey Logano 1 time for 9 laps; Ty Gibbs 1 time for 2 laps; AJ Allmendinger(i) 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 20,11,45,5,6,54,24,17,19,23

Stage #2 Top Ten: 20,45,5,11,6,9,19,12,17,10