The theme of the Daytona 500 for Joey Logano was that of not being denied.
The reigning Cup Series champion led 43 of the first 70 laps but then suffered a power unit issue that threatened to derail his race. Team Penske found a piece of debris lodged in an intake that sapped his car of power.
Logano caught a lucky debris caution, got the free pass, and resumed contending for the win. He once again was inside the top-5 when he and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. began fighting for the same real estate.
The two triggered a massive pileup with 15 laps to go.
It began with Logano trailing the outside leaders Corey Lajoie and Stenhouse. He had a surge of momentum and Stenhouse blocked it. This was objectively a late bold block but it was also the closing laps of the race too.
Stenhouse closed the door and Logano stayed in the throttle. The contact turned Stenhouse into Ryan Blaney, a Team Penske teammate and collected contenders Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Noah Gragson and Todd Gilliland.
“It just seemed like the No. 47 had a bit of an indecisive moment,” Logano said. “That’s what gets you in trouble at times is when you’ve got to pick one (lane).
The champion says the Stenhouse block just caused a stackup.
“We had a late block. I lifted,” Logano said. “Looked like he was going to go back up. I went to go back in there, and then he came back down and started lifting again. And then at that point, the checkup was so big, and all the cars behind you and shoving you into it, and at that point, you’re along for the ride.”
Stenhouse hadn’t seen a replay yet when asked about it.
“I feel like the holes were really small that he was trying to fill,” Stenhouse said. “I got a couple of late blocks on him as we were making ours runs up there. It was 10 to go and I was hoping he would stick with me and Lajoie … I’d have to go back and watch. Maybe he was trying to fill the gap and maybe he and someone else got together and hit me in the left rear.
“I was leaning down to try to run the middle lane with Lajoie to get us back going again. I pretty much pushed him around the race track for 10, 11, 12 laps and we were really fast doing it.”
Meanwhile, Busch was not impressed with what he saw.
“Looks like the fastest car got in a hurry to get to the wreck,” Busch said on FOX TV. “Logano was by far the fastest car today. Saw a lot of laps led and he could about do anything. The Penske cars were very strong. We still got 20 laps to go and he’s trying to go through the middle and make a hole that isn’t there. Just created chaos.”
Logano had a response to that too.
“I don’t know what to do differently,” Logano said. “At the moment, it’s easy to say, just don’t make the move, but not making the move doesn’t win the race either.”
