Denny Hamlin (P2) and Chris Buescher (P3) had great runs in the NASCAR All-Star race on Sunday but no one was even close to touching the brilliance of Joey Logano. Team Penske might not be doing all that well in the Cup Series but they certainly turned up for this race. The #22 car led 199 of the 200 laps, setting a new record for the most dominant win of the All-Star race in the history of the sport.
Advertisement
The driver is to credit but Logano gave most of it to his crew members, especially the ones working in the pits. There were no points on offer today but to take home a million dollars? Now that is something.
“Proud of the team,” the former Cup Series champion said. “That means that’s just great execution all the way through from the tuning it in practice, from the tire test when we were here, working on our car for a long time, and then finding the right tires. Honestly, all that work we did there and then the track was so different. We came here, we had to do a lot of work in practice and then obviously the qualifying effort is a total team effort to start on the front row.”
How about that, @joeylogano?
He wins the 2024 #AllStarRace and a hearty $1,000,000 check 🤑
🗯️ "I know there's no points paid, but there's a lot of money paid. We'll take that for sure and build some momentum off of it." #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/pZGJVPqjRQ
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) May 20, 2024
No one was expecting Goodyear’s soft compounds to last very long but the tire management experience of the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion came into play. It was also a revelation for the executives.
Joey Logano’s tire management send Goodyear to the drawing board
After the race, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President John Probst hailed Joey Logano for running as long as he did since it uncovered a flaw with the soft compounds. Even with tire management, they should not have lasted as long as they did and now, the job will be to get that right before the next tire test.
“Did everything go exactly like we thought? No. I think we would have all liked to see the tires fall off a little more. Credit to the #22 for doing something that honestly, you know Friday in practice and working with Goodyear, we didn’t think you could do. We didn’t think we’d see somebody run it that long and that hard and have it hold up that well,” he said.
Logano would not be too worried about all that, however. He’s won a million dollars and more importantly, he just gave himself some much-needed momentum ahead of the Coca-Cola 600.
