Remember how Robby Gordan and Terry Labonte got involved in the big one at the 2001 Daytona? The only identical thing between them was the cars they were driving, the Chevy Impala. Gordan was driving the #4 Kodak-sponsored car for Morgan-McClure Motorsports; While the Iceman drove his #5 Kellogg’s Racing 2000 Monte Carlo #5 for Hendrick Motorsports. There could be nothing more frustrating than this scenario for a car maker wanting to leave a mark in NASCAR. And even more frustrating when you are th team to stand last at the NASCAR Manufacturers’ Championship the year before! And the tables have surely turned this year.

In 2000, Ford had won the Manufacturers’ Championship, with Chevy coming in last. And, in 2024, Chevrolet won it and the exact opposite happened! This year, when Ford looks for retribution, one of the first three races ended in a complete disaster for the manufacturer. It was the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix 2025 at COTA.

Todd Gilliland comes clean to Joey Logano

The 2024 Cup Series champion called out Todd Gilliland for a move that wrecked his car in the COTA race. The incident unfolded in the race’s closing laps. Logano, driving his No. 22 Ford, had climbed into a solid position, banking valuable stage points. What started as a promising run ended with Logano fuming on pit road. Chaos struck when Gilliland, a fellow Ford driver from Front Row Motorsports, made contact that sent Logano spinning. Gilliland felt the weight of his mistake. “It sucks when someone else pays for your mistake,” he said. He tried to make amends.

“Last week was going to look like it was actually pretty good, where I get those 9 stage points. In the first stage, we got back up to like 7th, there at the end. Before, I got ran off the race track and then dumped all in one lap. That’s frustrating. I can tell you that’s probably the most frustrating thing to happen all year.” Joey Logano was clearly ticked off after last week’s race. Logano with his fiery competitiveness, took the hit hard. With three Phoenix Raceway wins and a title defense underway in 2025, he’s not letting off lost points. He stands 12th in the current points table with 7 points, so he is feeling the pressure to cover up to repeat his 2024 feat.

Spotting Logano sliding back after an earlier shove from another car, Gilliland misjudged his approach. He reached out to apologize. “That was not my intent to go in there and wreck him, but it just all happened really quickly so, yeah, that’s not my intent and I tried to apologize and like I said, I can just keep moving on.” he said when asked if he got too aggressive. He’d been slicing through traffic in his No. 38 Ford, using the S-curves to set up passes.

Gilliland owned up to the mess. “Yeah, I talked to him,” he said. “Yeah, I talked to him. He’s definitely not very happy, rightfully so. I think racing is a lot of give and take. We’re obviously going to be racing each other the next 34 races, so I hate to do that, obviously, any time. At the end, I feel like I was just in a pack of cars, just getting beaten around, and I’d gotten way too frustrated and made a lot of bad decisions in my last probably 10 laps or so.” Racing’s a two-way street, and Gilliland now knows it.

Off the track, Gilliland’s known for his tight bond with teammate Noah Gragson at Front Row Motorsports. They’re not exactly rivals but longtime friends with West Coast roots, racing together as kids in ARCA and K&N series. So he knows what goes on in a racer’s mind and how to keep up with one. Gilliland would want to think of this incident like friends clashing on the track.

“You’ve got to keep moving forward,” Logano said earlier this week about his past successes. That mindset will carry him into Sunday’s race at Phoenix, where he starts on the front row. For Gilliland, it’s a lesson in keeping cool under pressure because next time Logano might not let it slide so easily.

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Joey Logano got bested by William Byron in the qualifying race

William Byron just stole the show at Phoenix Raceway, nabbing the Cup Series pole for Sunday’s race on March 9, 2025. Driving his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy, Byron clocked a blistering 133.680 mph lap in qualifying, edging out Joey Logano by a hair. According to Speedway Digest, Byron’s speed left him grinning on pit road, marking his first pole in nearly a year. “I wasn’t expecting that chart-topping lap,” he said, admitting he missed his marks but carried insane entry speed.

Logano, starting alongside Byron on the front row in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford, turned a solid 133.195 mph. But he couldn’t resist a cheeky dig. “I don’t like William Byron anymore,” Logano quipped, laughing it off after Byron crushed his hopes for the top spot. Logano, the 2024 champ, knows Phoenix well, with three wins here, but Byron’s speed stung a bit.

This sets up a showdown at the 1-mile oval, where Logano’s experience faces Byron’s momentum. Byron’s lap came after a tricky qualifying session, where he “was sideways, missed the middle of the corner, and was loose off the dogleg,” he said. Still, he pulled it off, beating Logano’s bid for a third front-row start in four races this year.

Teams are buzzing about Goodyear’s option tires with six primary sets and two faster-wearing alternates. They’re hoping they shake up Phoenix’s tight pack racing. Logano’s not sweating it, though. With Byron on pole and Logano ready to pounce, Sunday’s 312-mile race promises fireworks. Grab your popcorn!