“That’s Horrible”: Joey Logano Reacts to Mega Crash That Destroyed the Field at Atlanta

Jerry Bonkowski | 29/06/2025
Joey Logano on the Same Page As Chase Elliott Regarding NASCAR's Million-Dollar In-Season Tournament

One day after pocketing $1 million from the NASCAR Driver Ambassador Program, Joey Logano saw his hopes of another $1 million in the inaugural In‑Season Challenge end quickly in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway.

Logano was among several drivers involved in a multi-car wreck early in the second stage that involved almost half of the field. Other notables — and almost all eliminated from advancing to Round 2 of the Challenge next week in Chicago — included Ross Chastain, Corey LaJoie, Austin Cindric, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suarez, Noah Gragson and Josh Berry.

“I was in the middle of it and I haven’t seen a replay to even know what happened,” Logano said. “Cars were sideways and you hit the brakes and everyone is just running into each other.

“Just a speedway wreck. Wrong place at the wrong time. Tried to win the stage and we couldn’t get that done, and you got to pay the piper when you go to the back there.”

Logano eventually did see the replay and said, “The whole field wrecked, and I’m just in the soup there. Oh my gosh, look at that. Oh, that’s horrible.”

NASCAR unofficially counted 23 cars involved in the Stage 2 wreck — the most they’ve ever recorded in a Cup race outside Daytona or Talladega. The EchoPark Speedway was reconfigured after the 2021 season, adding higher banking and other changes. It created a speedway that is, in essence, a mini version of Daytona and ‘Dega.

More on the multi-car wrecks

Coupled with the multi-car crash three laps from the end of Stage 1 — which eliminated Ryan Blaney from the Challenge — Team Penske lost all three of its drivers, as Blaney, Joey Logano, and Austin Cindric were all knocked out of contention for advancing.

The two big wrecks eliminated nine of the 11 drivers who have won at least one race this season. In a sense, those mishaps benefitted the more than two dozen Cup drivers who have yet to win a race this season.

Atlanta is the 18th race of the season — the halfway point of the full 36-race season — and leaves just eight races for drivers to qualify for the 10-race NASCAR Cup playoffs.

Post Edited By: Abhishek Ramesh
Atlanta Motor Speedway austin cindric Joey Logano Ryan Blaney Team Penske

About the author

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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