Several drivers wrecked during the Cup Series race at the Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday. But the defending champion, Joey Logano, stayed safe and put himself in Victory Lane despite leading only seven of the race’s 271 laps. It was Logano’s first victory of the season, and with it, he has secured himself a playoff spot. But how did he manage to stay out of trouble?
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Logano was asked about this after his victory celebrations. He shared some insights about what could make a driver’s day go wrong at venues such as Texas.
Logano clarified that the chances of accidents are increased by the setups of the cars rather than by the drivers. Some drivers can put their cars more on the edge than others because of their setups. And this could go wrong at times as much as it can go right.
He then pointed out one particular factor in Texas that creates a tricky challenge. “That bump down in 3 and 4? It’s brutal, right?” wondered Logano.
“Everybody’s down on their rear limiters as much as they can be. If you’re a little free and it hits the limiter, you’re gone. There’s no opportunity to save it. You have to think of risk vs reward throughout the race,” he added.
Logano went on to explain that there are moments during the race when drivers have to push, trying to reach their maximum limits. Then there are moments when they have to remain conservative, trying to stay within the realms of reason. He concluded by reiterating that it wasn’t just the driver that fueled accidents, but the setups of their cars.
Interestingly, Kyle Larson also spoke about how the Next Gen has trouble handling the bump on the Texas track.
Larson lauds Xfinity car on how it handled the bump at Texas
Larson won the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 on Saturday. He was thoroughly impressed with how the Xfinity Series car handled on the track and lauded it over the Next Gen car. Part of his appreciation was how the car took on the bump between Turns 3 and 4.
“I don’t think the Cup cars are able to run as high as the Xfinity cars in (Turns) 3 and 4 because the higher you run over there, there’s that one bigger bump just past the center. And I feel like the Cup cars, the bumps, upset us a lot. That’s why you see people crash over there so often,” said Larson.
Fortunately, both Larson and Logano were able to overcome this difficulty and finish their races. The Hendrick Motorsports driver completed his day in fourth place after leading 90 laps.
