Joey Logano has had better afternoons at Talladega Superspeedway. He has also had afternoons when his Ford Mustang remained on all four wheels, which is generally considered a good starting point for a successful NASCAR race.
The two-time Cup Series champion was battling near the front of Sunday’s YellaWood 500 when a late-race crash sent his No. 22 Team Penske Ford upside down, sliding across the tri-oval on its roof with just five laps remaining.
The resulting 15-car pileup brought out the red flag and left several cars looking as though they’d been involved in a demolition derby organized by people who had never seen a car before.
Logano was racing behind Ross Chastain when a bump in the tri-oval sent his Ford sideways. Carson Hocevar was behind him, and the resulting contact sent Logano spinning up the track and into the outside wall. The car flipped onto its roof and slid toward Turn 1, thankfully without another car slamming into it.
Riley Herbst endured an equally frightening moment, making heavy contact with the outside wall before his car slammed into the inside wall at considerable speed. Herbst gingerly climbed from the wreckage, appearing to have the wind knocked out of him.
Chase Briscoe, another driver still fighting for the championship, was among those caught up in the carnage, along with Austin Cindric, Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suárez, Chris Buescher, Josh Berry, Erik Jones, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Alex Bowman, Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen. At least 15 cars sustained damage.
Safety crews carefully returned Logano’s Ford to its wheels before he climbed out. The driver later admitted he wasn’t entirely sure whether to be frustrated about losing a shot at the win or simply grateful to be alive.
“I don’t know if I should be mad that I wrecked or happy to be alive,” Logano said. “I think I’m more happy to be alive. Screw the rest of the stuff, but it was a wild ride there.”
Logano described the moment as something straight out of Talladega Nights, the 2006 comedy that made Ricky Bobby’s upside-down antics part of racing folklore.
“It was a very much a Talladega Nights moment like, ‘Oh, no. I’m upside down. This is not good moment,’” he said.
Jokes aside, Logano was genuinely shaken by the experience. His radio had become disconnected, leaving him unable to communicate with his team as he sat trapped inside the overturned car.
“I was thinking about my wife,” he said. “She was probably wigging out on me, but I tried talking to whoever I could, but when I flipped everything came off out of the pockets there.”
Logano said he could see fuel and other fluids leaking while he remained upside down, making the wait for safety crews particularly unnerving. He praised the response team for being immediately on hand and staying beside him throughout the process of righting the car.
He also credited NASCAR’s safety improvements, noting that his previous rollover had resulted in the roof structure being crushed down toward his head. This time, he said, the car’s structure appeared to have held up considerably better.
“The car did a great job,” Logano said. “The last time I flipped it was crushed on my head. This time, I don’t think anything really caved or crushed at all.”
Logano had won a stage earlier in the race and was hoping to salvage a strong points day. He had been working with Chastain, who was a lap down but still racing hard, in an attempt to keep himself in contention.
He had considered making a move around the No. 1 Chevrolet but decided the risk wasn’t worth it, particularly with no other Ford available to help him if the maneuver went wrong.
Instead, he found himself upside down, watching his afternoon—and a potential victory—disappear in a cloud of smoke.
Asked about the circumstances that led to the crash, Logano was reluctant to blame anyone.
“It’s just what speedway racing is these days,” he said. “It really sucks at times. At times it’s pretty awesome and at times you end up on your lid and you say it sucks.”
He then offered a suggestion for his next racing destination.
“I like Martinsville,” Logano said, laughing.
After Sunday’s ride, it’s difficult to blame him.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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