One week after a disqualification from a fifth-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway due to a missing nut on a spoiler bracket, Joey Logano rebounded in impressive fashion, surviving a grueling race at Texas Motor Speedway to claim his first victory of the 2025 season in Sunday’s Würth 400 presented by Liqui Moly.
Logano, who started 27th, methodically worked his way through the field and capitalized on a late-race opportunity to pass Michael McDowell for the lead with less than four laps remaining in the scheduled distance. The reigning series champion held off a charging Ross Chastain in overtime to secure his second victory at the 1.5-mile track and the 37th of his career.
“The sport changes so quickly,” Logano said after climbing from his car. “It’s crazy how you can just ride these rollercoasters and just proud of the team. Finally got (sponsor) AAA Insurance into Victory Lane. They’ve been a partner of mine since I’ve been to Penske, so 13, 14 years. I’ve yet to win with them. It was awesome to get that done here.”
Logano’s path to victory was not without its challenges. He had to navigate his way through a race that produced 12 cautions for 73 laps and saw several contenders fall by the wayside, including Denny Hamlin, whose streak of 21 consecutive lead-lap finishes came to an end with an engine failure on Lap 75, and Josh Berry, who crashed while running at the front of the field on Lap 125.
“Slowly, methodically, a couple at a time,” Logano said of his drive. “We had a really tough pit stall situation. The pit crew did a good job of managing that and just grabbed a couple (of positions) here and there.”
The turning point of the race came on Lap 264 when Logano made a bold move to pass McDowell for the lead. McDowell, who had charged to the front after a restart on Lap 245, lost control in dirty air behind second-place Ryan Blaney a lap later and slammed into the Turn 2 wall, ending his bid for a surprise victory.
“Sorry, boys, I tried,” a rueful McDowell radioed to his team.
On the subsequent overtime restart, Logano made quick work of his Team Penske teammate Blaney, clearing him through the first two corners as Chastain charged into second from the bottom lane. Logano maintained his advantage over the final two laps to claim the checkered flag.
Chastain, who started 31st, credited his team for making the right adjustments throughout the race to give him a car capable of contending for the win.
“Gosh, that’s a working day,” Chastain said. “Just no confidence in the car yesterday. Y’all saw that. Just the speed of the Trackhouse cars on Saturdays is just terrible. We’re just not confident, all three drivers.”
He added, “There was one pit stop today that (crew chief) Phil Surgen and the group — it takes a ton of people back at Trackhouse and on the box here in GM at Chevrolet. They made me a confident driver all of a sudden with one adjustment. It was small stuff. It doesn’t even make sense, but after that I was a confident driver.”
Blaney finished third, followed by Kyle Larson, who led a race-high 90 laps but surrendered the top spot to McDowell on the Lap 245 restart. Erik Jones rounded out the top five, scoring his first top-five result since last year’s fall race at Talladega.
William Byron, who finished 13th, maintained his series points lead by 13 over Larson as the Cup Series heads to Kansas Speedway next weekend for the AdventHealth 400.
