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Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, celebrates in the Ruoff Mortgage victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on May 08, 2022 in Darlington, South Carolina. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)
(Photo: James Gilbert/Getty Images)

Thinkin’ Out Loud: 2022 Goodyear 400 at Darlington

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What happened?

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Joey Logano bumped William Byron and ran away for his first points race victory of the NASCAR Cup Series season at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, May 8. Byron fell back to 13th while Tyler Reddick, Justin Haley, Kevin Harvick, and Chase Elliott rounded out the top five.

This is Logano’s first victory since the dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway in April of 2021.

How did it happen?

With a short-track style bump and run — on a 1.3-mile track.

The final stage seemed to be turning out like one of those interesting Formula 1-style tire strategy races. Multiple drivers were looking to make two stop strategies in the closing laps of the race, while others were looking to make only one.

One of those two-stop strategists was the No. 8 of Reddick, who had been hovering near the lower end of the top 10 the whole race. Reddick was leading after he had pitted before much of the rest of the field, including polesitter Logano. The early pit stop allowed Reddick to take advantage of the fresher tires and overtake the leaders when they had finally made their final pit stop. The tradeoff was that the Richard Childress Racing car still had one more stop to make.

Then the caution flew for Alex Bowman after he hit the wall, and suddenly all of those strategies changed. Instead, there was now only one strategy left: pit, and go like hell.

Reddick came to pit road followed by the rest of the field. However, Logano had taken the lead on the race off pit road with Reddick in tow. Byron was close behind.

One lap after the restart on lap 262, the caution flew again. This one far more violent than the last.

It allowed the leader to rerack and try again, but now with fewer laps left and with it fewer opportunities to make passes.

On the final restart, Byron sailed to the inside of Logano to make the pass and finally cleared him for the lead. With only around 25 laps to go and a clear racetrack ahead of him, it seemed as though Byron was on track for his third win of the 2022 season.

Yet with 10 laps to go, it was all too obvious this race was not yet over as Logano’s No. 22 Ford returned to the form it was on early in the race when he led over 100 laps. That, or perhaps Byron’s No. 24 Jeff Gordon throwback Chevrolet was fading.

It was only three laps to go when Logano reached the back bumper of the Hendrick Motorsports driver. And with so little time left, there was little time for the Team Penske driver to make a fair pass on Byron.

See also
William Byron on Joey Logano: 'He's Just an Idiot'

So, he didn’t.

With Byron limping back to finish the race where he could, Logano only had to cruise to an easy victory with Reddick close behind.

Who stood out?

He may be the center of a swirling mass of controversy after an aggressive move for the lead that won him the race, but what wasn’t controversial was the fact that Logano showed speed all day. In fact, he was dominant.

Logano led 107 laps throughout the 293-lap event, the most out of anyone else the whole day.

That might not seem like a surprise for anyone that hasn’t watched a NASCAR race in the last couple of years, but 2022 has not been a great year for the 2018 Cup Series champion, despite his Clash win in Los Angeles earlier this year.

Before Darlington, Logano was rocking an 11.1 average finish for the first 11 races of the year, the lowest of his career since 2017.

After a 29th-place finish at Dover Motor Speedway last week, Logano’s crew got to work to bring the No. 22 team back to its former winning glory. Indeed, at Darlington, it showed.

After not only leading the most laps, Logano picked up 10 points and a playoff point after winning the first stage of the day.

It may have been a day that divided many fanbases, but perhaps Darlington could be the start of a strong run for the 31-year-old.

Who fell flat?

Ross Chastain seemed to have a car that was going to win today.

With 26 laps led that includes a stage two win, Chastain was en route for a third win of the 2022 season which would have been a third for Trackhouse Racing Team.

After the stage two break, Chastain fought Denny Hamlin for the lead at the beginning of the final stage. But when the duo flew off of turn 2 side-by-side, Chastain hit the dreaded patch that had been plaguing drivers all day.

It ruined his day.

The No. 1 Dale Earnhardt Jr. throwback car was forced to go behind the wall after the crash, which meant that Chastain would be tallied for a 30th-place result.

Chastain’s spin on Sunday also meant something else when it came to Darlington and the Next Gen car.

What did this race prove?

There were 13 DNFs on Sunday.

That’s the same amount as the race at Talladega Superspeedway and the most out of all races this season, including the Daytona 500.

It’s been proven this year that the Next Gen car is difficult to handle for the best the stock car racing world has to offer.

But at Darlington on Sunday, it seemed to be even worse.

Out of those 11 cars that weren’t able to finish the 400-miler, only three of them were mechanical failures. The rest were simply the result of a car that was a little too difficult to handle.

See also
Justin Haley Finishes 3rd at Darlington, Best Full-Time Cup Series Finish

The abominable combination of the Next Gen car and The Track Too Tough to Tame claimed the likes of past Cup champions Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr, Kyle Buschย and Brad Keselowski.

That’s not including the other four drivers that crashed, which include Chastain and Corey Lajoie.

But to be fair, there was a big crash that claimed most of the aforementioned drivers. That being said, let’s not jump to a kneejerk reaction after this weekend, please? After all, it opened the door for many of the smaller teams to come in and score some solid finishes.

Instead, let’s save all Next Gen car alterations for the short tracks.

Paint scheme of the race

Before you read this, you need to understand that this is a very difficult decision.

Every year the throwback weekend at Darlington produces some of the best paint schemes of the whole year, so to narrow it down to only one livery would simply be a crime.

In fact, there were so many, that we at Frontstretch decided to do a grid walk to give out thoughts on each one:

For the overall winner, there are a few things to consider.

First, is does it have the same colors?

There were plenty of throwbacks this year that matched the design of the original paint scheme they are paying homage to, but there were a few that decided to change the colors for some reason.

We don’t like these.

Second, does it have the same number font?

Many teams love to have the same design on the car with colors and all, but they don’t always change the number font with it if they have to. Penske is guilty of this almost every year.

Finally, does the throwback scheme really, truly look like the original?

Even with all of the above, sometimes there can be a color that’s a little off or a line that simply isn’t straight or curved enough to match the original.

With all of that said, there was one car throughout the weekend that really matched everything it was trying to replicate.

He may have left Darlington upset, but Byron and the No. 24 HMS crew’s throwback paint scheme honoring Jeff Gordon’s 2007 Dupont flames livery hit the spot perfectly. Seaglass blue and all.

Better than last time?

Last year’s Southern 500 at Darlington saw a late race dive from Larson in an attempt to nail the back end of Hamlin for the lead. It didn’t work out for the Californian, but hey, it was still fun to watch.

But on Sunday that late race dive worked, and that alone will make this race an improvement.

Whether you like Logano or not, a bump and run ending to any race is an interesting one to watch that will keep people talking around the water cooler on Monday at the office. For the next week — maybe even weeks — everybody that watches NASCAR will be having the same debate:

Was it justified?

It even has Hall of Famers with their feathers ruffled.

Albeit one of those Hall of Famers may have an ownership stake in the car that was wrecked, so maybe there will be a little bit of bias with what he has to say.

So, with controversy aside, how was the actual racing itself?

Well, in last year’s Southern 500, there were seven unscheduled caution flags matching Sunday’s amount. However, remember last September’s race was 100 miles longer, so, in terms of caution lap and green flag ratio, Sunday’s race spent more time under the yellow banner.

In terms of competition, Sunday’s Goodyear 400 seems to win again. Sunday’s race edges out the 2021 Southern 500 again with 24 lead changes over 13 drivers. In September, there were only 19 changes with 10 different leaders, and remember, that was a longer race.

In all? Darlington is pretty fun again.

Whatโ€™s next?

NASCAR returns to the Midwest.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Kansas Speedway for the series’ first visit to the 1.5-mile track. Cup qualifying begins on Saturday, May 14 at 5 p.m. ET, while the Advent Health 400 will be televised live on FOX Sports 1 on Sunday, May 15 at 3 p.m. ET.

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NASCAR At Track Coordinator at Frontstretch

Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of theย Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast,ย and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.

Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT

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