Only Yesterday: The Last Time Tempers Flared & Joey Logano Came From Nowhere to Win

Joey Logano has developed a skill at “stealing” accomplishments, whether it be championships or race wins.

Obviously, each of those accomplishments have a lot of work put into them, and maybe “stolen” isn’t the right term. But that No. 22 Ford seems to just be at the right place at the right time, more often than not. Including last Saturday night (Sept. 19), in which he won one on the concrete of Bristol Motor Speedway.

Logano’s 40th career NASCAR Cup Series victory had echoes of his fifth, in which he took a surprise victory on a Saturday night with plenty of action and even a few punches thrown.

The 2014 Toyota Owner’s 400 at Richmond Raceway took place on April 26, 2014. Qualifying was rained out, so the field lined up by practice speeds.

Kyle Larson, in just his 13th Cup Series start, started out front as a result. It became clear what kind of night it was going to be in just the first corner, when Larson came down on Clint Bowyer and got spun out for his efforts.

Bowyer was considered the pre-race favorite by many in the garage, but he’d end up finishing last in 43rd. What happened? Brakes.

Had there not been a fight this past Saturday night, the big story out of Bristol Motor Speedway would have been boring racing due to Goodyear bringing bricks that just did not wear.

A dozen years ago, the big story instead was the exact opposite. The tires wore out too much, causing chunks of rubber to get stuck in tire wells and other areas of the front of the cars, including the brake lines. The brakes could still work, but they couldn’t cool down effectively, so Bowyer’s day ended after 159 laps due to the right front of the car flaming up and ruining the suspension.

Later on, Reed Sorenson stopped on pit road after the rubber build-up caused an electrical problem that made his car a full burning mess. A Hendrick Motorsports crew member ran out and rescued Sorenson from the burning Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet.

The longest green-flag run of the night ended up being just 64 laps, as by that point somebody would always have a major issue with the tires that at least caused a debris caution or resulted in an accident.

The fireworks began in earnest on a restart with 22 to go. Denny Hamlin would wreck as a result of Vickernism the next lap, as the entire field stacked up due to Logano having a terrible restart from third.

During the resulting caution, Logano yelled over his radio that leader Matt Kenseth brake checked the field on that restart, causing him to miss the launch.

Did Kenseth do so? From my own perspective watching the footage, I don’t think so. Darrell Waltrip in the booth mentioned on the broadcast, “I think the 22 was just looking for somebody to blame on his bad restart.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr., restarting second next to Kenseth, mentioned that he thought the No. 20 Toyota had “bowled over” a bunch of people there. So maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. It was well on the line, however, and it showed that Kenseth was desperate to keep his long-run-favored car out front on the short runs to end the race.

On the next restart, the field made it three laps before JJ Yeley had an engine failure. Kyle Busch was one of the few drivers to come down pit road and take four tires.

On what would be the last restart with nine laps to go, Kenseth tried to hold off both Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon, with Keselowski up top and Gordon on the inside.

Keselowski cleared Gordon for second with six laps to go. Kenseth blocked Keselowski and kept the 2012 champion high on the racetrack instead of letting him cut down to the inside to try and take the lead.

Logano took advantage of this hard racing, clearing Gordon and Keselowski in one big move with five laps to go, then finding a way past Kenseth to take the lead with four laps to go.

Logano won and Gordon took second. Keselowski gave Kenseth a bump in the last few laps of the race as retaliation, and both fell behind a charging Busch, who stole third on his fresh tires.

On the cooldown lap, Keselowski made more contact with Kenseth, causing damage to his, Gordon’s and Earnhardt’s cars. Keselowski then walked up to Kenseth’s car on pit road and point at it before walking away.

Logano burned the rear tires off to the rim in his burnouts. Keselowski jumped on the No. 22’s hood in “celebration” for Logano’s victory, clearly excited for Logano and not at all to get the Ford through tech later on that night.

FOX was able to talk to both Keselowski and Kenseth in the post race.

“I had a shot at winning the race, and felt like he ran me off the track,” Keselowski said. “You race to win, he was definitely racing to win. You hope when somebody races to win, that they at least win the race if they’re going to wreck you or race you off the track.

“It was a mind-boggling move to me. So I made sure to pay him back.”

“I did drive in there and make a slide job,” Kenseth admitted. “I was trying to block both lanes and win the race, that’s what I think all five of us were out there to do. Just disappointing he had to tear up all of our cars afterwards.

“I could have gave him more room, but he had a lane all the way down the straight.”

Kenseth and Keselowski didn’t come to blows that night, but somebody else did. Frontstretch‘s Amy Henderson summarized this in her Big 6 column that weekend for the site:

“Casey Mears and Marcos Ambrose had a heated discussion after Ambrose got into Mears and cut his tire late as Mears was gunning for a top-15 finish. Ambrose tried to turn his back on Mears, who clearly wanted to continue the conversation, and when Ambrose shook him, Mears gave Ambrose a shove. Ambrose responded by throwing a right hook to Mears’s face, leaving him with a cut and swollen eye. It’s likely that NASCAR will penalize Ambrose for throwing a punch, and Mears indicated that he’s not going to forgive and forget either. ‘I don’t think it’s something you just forget,” he said Sunday. “That’s kind of where it sits.’”

Ambrose ($25,000) and Mears ($15,000) ended up as the only two drivers who were even fined on the night, let alone penalized.

As an aside, watching this race really drove home how much better the current format is. Under the 2014 to 2016 format, there were really only two true outcomes for most of the drivers in the field for the first 26 races: win or not win. There was no award for finishing seventh in the regular season standings compared to finishing 27th. The only way points would matter in the regular season were the last positions in The Chase for non-winners, so if you won, there was no need to worry about good point finishes. This is notable because FOX spent much of the broadcast hyping up the then-new system.

The takeaway from both 2014 and 2026 is that, when they put the Cup field on a short track, there’s always a chance for electricity. You never know quite what you’re going to get. A constant, however, is that No. 22 Ford is going to need to be one to beat at the finish.