Joey Logano brought the NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville to a merciful end on Sunday.
Logano won the race after maxing out his fuel through five overtimes, a Cup Series record. The 400-mile race lasted 331 laps on the 1.33-mile track thanks to a record 16 cautions.
Logano finished first on the final restart and held off a hard-charging Tyler Reddick to take the win.
The two-time Cup Series champion managed to complete 110 laps on his last tank of fuel thanks to the numerous cautions that plagued the final stage of the race. Reddick passed several cars on the penultimate lap but was unable to get past Logano on the final lap as the race eventually ended when Zane Smith snuck past for second.
The win is Logano’s first of the season and will likely secure him in the playoffs. Logano entered the race 14th in points with just two top-five finishes and five top-10 finishes. He is now in the playoffs along with his Team Penske teammates, Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric, after his victories earlier this season.
In addition to the five overtime restarts, the race also had a rain delay due to thunderstorms. It started before 3 p.m. local time in Nashville and didn’t finish until almost 8:15 a.m. Central Time.
what a clown show
Sunday’s race was the perfect example of why NASCAR shouldn’t have unlimited green, white and red flag restarts at the end of races. It’s OK to finish a race at the posted distance like IndyCar does.
The chaos of the final laps was started by Austin Cindric when he spun on lap 298. That necessitated the first restart in overtime with Denny Hamlin leading Ross Chastain.
Hamlin passed Chastain with seven laps remaining in regulation despite having a much faster car for the final 20 laps. Chastain skillfully used his car to fend off Hamlin and made it as difficult as possible for him to pass.
Hamlin had enough fuel for one or two green and white checker restarts. He didn’t have enough fuel for five people.
The first restart ended as soon as it began when Kyle Larson tried to push Hamlin in the first turn and slid into Chastain. The maneuver ended Chastain’s day and prompted another restart.
The second restart came about thanks to a six-car crash on the final straight of what was supposed to be the penultimate lap. But the chaos was only just beginning.
Hamlin stayed out along with the other leaders hoping the race would finally end after a third attempt by GWC. That group of leaders included Kyle Busch in fourth, who held onto his position after Chastain’s crash. Busch hit the wall as he attempted to slow down to avoid Chastain. However, NASCAR inexplicably gave him back his track position.
In the end, that didn’t matter. Larson’s car ran into trouble because he ran out of fuel on the third restart and Busch ended up in the wall when he waved the green flag.
KYLE LARSON IS NOT GOING.
KYLE BUSCH CRASHES AND IS OUT.
WE ARE GOING TO QUADRUPLE OVERTIME IN NASHVILLE ON USA NETWORK AND THE NBC SPORTS APP. pic.twitter.com/U8vASYiJyj
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) July 1, 2024
Guess what? That led to a fourth restart. At that point, Hamlin and others had to stop for fuel for fear of running out of gas and Logano took the lead.
The fourth restart was not the last thanks to Josh Berry’s accident in Turn 4 before the leaders received the white flag.
It’s hard to blame the teams for pushing fuel limits and the drivers for racing aggressively on late restarts; it’s what they’re trained to do within the confines of NASCAR’s points and overtime system. But Sunday also showed why it may not be a bad idea for races to finish at the scheduled distance. Not all endings have to be excellent. Sunday’s was not. And it took five tries with a lot of crashed cars to get to that point.
Christopher Bell crashes
Christopher Bell had the better car and won the first two stages before the chaos began, but finished 36th after crashing on the third stage.
Bell was back in the field thanks to a pit strategy and hit the wall after his car came loose in the middle of Turns 1 and 2. Before crashing on Lap 227, Bell had led 131 laps and was clearly the pilot to beat.
Since Hamlin did not win, Bell, Hamlin, Larson and William Byron are tied for the Cup Series lead with three wins each with seven races remaining before the playoffs.
Race results
1. Joey Logano
2. Zane Smith
3. Tyler Reddick
4. Ryan Preece
5. Chris Buescher
6. Ryan Blaney
7. Bubba Wallace
8. Kyle Larson
9. Daniel Henric
10. Noah Gragson
11. AJ Allmendinger
12. Denny Hamlin
13. Justin Haley
14. Alex Bowman
15. Austin Cindric
16. Carson Hocevar
17. Todd Gilliland
18. Chase Elliott
19. William Byron
20. Corey LaJoie
21. Chasing Briscoe
22. Daniel Suarez
23. Ty Gibbs
24. Martin Truex Jr.
25. Brad Keselowski
26. Josh Berry
27. Kyle Busch
28.Harrison Burton
29. Corey Heim
30. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
31. John Hunter Nemechek
32. Austin Dillon
33. Ross Chastain
34. Erik Jones
35. Michael Mic Dowell
36. Christopher Bell
37. Riley Herbst
38. Chad Finchum
