Roger Penske’s Ambitious Star Lands Teammate Joey Logano in Hot Water After Sonoma Tango With Tony Stewart’s Mentee

The Toyota/Save Mart 350 road race at repaved Sonoma saw its third yellow fly on Lap 19 of the very first stage after a Team Penske pit strategy went horribly wrong. Pitting from the lead, Joey Logano suffered damage to the side and rear of his car from Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe and Wood Brothers Racing’s Harrison Burton after a mid-pack collision, also involving the #22 driver’s teammate, Austin Cindric.

According to an update by The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi, “Joey Logano says it feels like the suspension is bent in the back left.” In a separate X post by NASCAR.com’s Dustin Albino, Logano’s crew chief Paul Wolfe reportedly told him, “It didn’t look like anything was bent.” 

Regardless, from winning the Busch Light pole to finishing Stage 1 in P30, Logano’s 2024 woes were on full display off Turn 3A at Sonoma. But the car that looked like it suffered the worst out of the half a dozen or so involved was Chase Briscoe’s #14. After making contact with his fellow Ford Performance driver, Briscoe’s Mustang Dark Horse looked much worse for wear. Replays showed the #14’s rear panels barely hanging off its frame in a distressing manner.

Subsequently, in a post-race interview, the Stewart-Haas Racing driver lamented, “It was definitely kind of wild from the get-go, just guys driving through each other and everything else. It was a wild day. For us, it was anything that could go wrong kind of went wrong between getting spun out and just not having our balance really that great. And then we had a water pressure issue and at the end, the rear end just blew up. So it was not a great day for us, especially when we kind of need a good one.”

Interestingly, it was Joey Logano’s teammate, Austin Cindric, who turned Briscoe into the #22 right after its driver spun out of in the middle of the track, coming through the esses. Another car caught in the ensuing melee was Ricky Stenhouse Jr’s #47 Camaro ZL1. However, he retained minimal damage, sliding off-track just in time.

At the end of Stage 1, Logano finished 30th, whereas Cindric placed 14th. With the Cup Series slowly edging towards the postseason, winning pole at Sonoma was Logano’s golden opportunity to seal his place in the playoffs. After his P5 finish at Gateway last weekend, the #22 driver said, “We got a lot of points today. Not as many as we would want, but we did a good job with the strategy.” Ironically, it was his strategy today that got him caught up in the wreck.

To make the most of his track position, his team brought him in early. But when he came out, it was right in the middle of the pack that eventually caused his spin. “We’re not satisfied. We’re still below the cut. So it’s hard to say you’re satisfied with anything outside of being in the playoffs,” Logano said after last weekend’s race. So you can imagine the mood following the Toyota/Save Mart 350, where he could only finish in 21st place.

On a brighter note, Team Penske’s defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney picked up some crucial stage points in P2, finishing behind 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick. However, none of it worked out, as both drivers were relegated to a P7 and P8 finish, respectively. But out of the two, Tyler Reddick’s heartbreak was evident as he revealed how his results didn’t shine through despite a similar strategy to race winner Kyle Larson.

Tyler Reddick’s Sonoma woes

The #45 23XI driver has had a bittersweet relationship with the California-based racetrack. Reddick has failed to make an impact since his first start at the venue. While 2021 saw him finish P19, his performance went even further down with P35 and P33 in 2022 and 2023.

This year, though, he started strong, winning Stage 1. However, a pit stop in Lap 53 (with 3 laps left in Stage 2) saw Chris Buescher inherit the lead to win the second stage, leaving Reddick in P29. The pit stop was supposed to be a well-executed strategy, and it kind of worked. With fresh tires, the 2o24 GEICO 500 winner finished with a career-best P8 on Sunday. However, he still couldn’t help but lament what could have been.

“I didn’t have a great restart – that also played a big factor,” Reddick said. “Even when we kind of got some clean air after we got the second set of tires on it – it didn’t seem as good. We will go back and look at it and try to understand what got away from us, but at least we got a playoff point out of it with the Monster Energy Toyota Camry. The #5 was on a similar strategy to us – and he won the race, and we finished 8th. We were doing the right things; we just didn’t have the restart we needed.”

On the other hand, Kyle Larson, fresh off of a ‘Double Duty’ upset and a season-saving waiver, couldn’t be happier about his second Sonoma victory. “I knew I’d be quick from the get go, but I thought once the tires would come up to temp, it would even off too much. Thankful that we had enough grip. Thankful, too, that those guys got racing and Martin [Truex Jr] never got clear to where I could get stuck in third, and that really saved the race.”

The 2021 Cup Series champion added, “Once he got the lead, I’m like, ‘Man, I hope he doesn’t have somebody to judge off of here into [Turn] 4 and he misses the apex.’ Sure enough, he did, and I had a big run.” It’s understandable why Larson would be so wary of Truex Jr. After all, the #19 driver has had four victories at the venue, with his latest coming in 2023. This time, though, fuel woes took over, relegating him to a P27 finish. It seems luck has (mostly) been on Kyle Larson’s side in 2024! What do you think?