How Joey Logano finally scored his first top 5 of 2025 with Texas win

To be blunt, Joey Logano’s title defence has been pathetic so far, but fortunately for the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, things finally seem to be looking up after a win in Texas.

The 2025 season had been a nightmare for Logano for the first three months. The racing world was already watching him closely as the reigning champion, but also because he had won the 2024 title because of what many fans feel was one too many strokes of luck in a controversial playoff format.

Those who felt he was undeserving of the title were surely pleased when he failed to score a top-five finish across the first nine races with only a single top ten to his name. Insult was added to injury when he finished fifth at Talladega only to be disqualified.

If Sunday is anything to go by, however, the disqualification seems to have lit a fire under him. Despite seeming like another non-factor at Texas Motor Speedway, Logano raced smart and trouble free to take the lead in overtime, holding off Ross Chastain to score the win.

Logano initially seemed destined for another dismal outing when he qualified 27th. However, attrition whittled down most of the contenders like Denny Hamlin, whose engine blew and caused his car to catch fire, and crash victims Josh Berry, Alex Bowman, and Bubba Wallace.

Due to his poor qualifying position, Logano’s pit box was further back than usual, which ironically worked in his favour as he opted to change four tyres on his pit stops; while this meant spending longer on pit road, it kept him away from trouble closer to the front.

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“There were some good cars that started towards the back,” Logano explained after victory in Texas. “There were some moments where a couple of the good cars lost track position, whether it was from pit road penalties or wrecks. There were a lot of wrecks there at the end. There were moments like that that shuffled the field a little bit.

“We just put four tyres on every time. We never even swung the bat at two tyres because of the stall that we had with the #35 (Riley Herbst) in front of us, we just felt like putting two tyres on was asking for a crash on pit road because we would be leaving when he is coming in. We just kept putting four on it and trying to methodically pick off a couple here and there.”

Logano methodically worked his way up to the front, taking the lead on Lap 264 before Michael McDowell spun to force overtime. He started with Team Penske ally Ryan Blaney, who also had a poor qualifying effort, next to him only for Logano to quickly pull away.

Chastain passed Blaney in Turn 3 but spent the entire final lap at the Texas Motor Speedway unable to catch Logano.

The victory is Logano’s second at Texas but first since 2014, and gives owner Roger Penske a two-race win streak after Austin Cindric at Talladega. Winning also gives Logano a huge sigh of relief as he is locked into the playoffs, especially considering how bad the season started.

“I told my wife last week before we left, ‘Watch: we’ll go win this one. It’s just how we do stuff,'” Logano recalled. “Any time you kick us down, I feel like we come back ten times harder, whatever that is in us. Definitely had a fast car today. It’s nice to change the storyline.”

Legacy Motor Club pleased with double top 10

Logano was not the only happy camper after the Würth 400 in Texas as Legacy Motor Club had fun as well placing both of their drivers in the top ten. Erik Jones impressed with a fifth-place finish while John Hunter Nemechek was eighth.

Sunday marked the second time Legacy MC had multiple drivers in the top ten in 2025 after Nemechek and Jimmie Johnson at the Daytona 500 in February; Jones and Nemechek also achieved the feat in the 2024 Daytona 500. However, this was the first instance of the team doing so outside of a superspeedway under their current identity.

Before that, the last case was the 2014 Food City 500 at Bristol, when they were known as Richard Petty Motorsports, when Aric Almirola and Marcos Ambrose placed third and fifth. Ambrose and Almirola also recorded the outfit’s most recent double top ten at an intermediate prior to Sunday with a ninth and tenth in the 2013 Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas.

Jones was making his 300th career Cup Series start. Sunday was a fight for him as his #43 was penalised twice on pit road, but managed to claw his way back into the top ten to score his first top-five run of 2025.

“It would have been pretty disappointing to have a car this good, our first car this year that’s been pretty strong, to throw it away,” said Jones, who subsequently celebrated his performance by posting a bucktoothed grinning emoji (a running gag of his) on Twitter. “I thought we were headed that way, but it turned out well. I would love this to be the start of our summer stretch and just keep it going.

“It’s been a long road. Last year was tough and this year started out a little bit tough and we’ve had our ups and downs. I’m just happy to have a good car.”

Nemechek had more ground to make up as he qualified 28th. It was a tumultuous effort as a result, but like Logano, he found his #42 ran better by racing smart and he gradually worked his way into the top ten.

“We unloaded with speed this week, which was nice, in practice. Had good long run speed,” Nemechek stated. “It was an up-and-down day for us. Just kind of all over the place with what we had. Glad to come home eighth. The last couple of restarts were tough with the positions that we were in. I’ve got to get better from a driver’s standpoint racing up towards the front, but I haven’t had any chances at that, so progressing and learning.”

NASCAR 2025 Würth 400 – Results