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May 05, 2025
By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service
FORT WORTH, Tex. — After Michael McDowell’s dream ended less than four laps short of the scheduled finish in Sunday’s Würth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY, Joey Logano took control and rode the NASCAR Cup Series rollercoaster to his first victory of the season.
A week after a missing nut on a spoiler bracket cost him a disqualification from fifth place at Talladega Superspeedway, Logano beat runner-up Ross Chastain to the finish line by 0.346-second in overtime to score his second victory at 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway and the 37th of his career.
In fashioning his first top-five finish of 2025, Logano successfully pursued McDowell, who had charged into the lead after a restart on Lap 245 of 271 and held it through two cautions and restarts.
On Lap 264, less than four laps from a finish, the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford went low on the backstretch, avoided a block from McDowell and passed the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet for the lead.
Passed for second by Logano’s Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney a lap later, McDowell lost control in dirty air behind Blaney’s Ford and slammed into the Turn 2 wall, ending his race in 26th place.
“Sorry, boys, I tried,” a rueful McDowell radioed to his team.
On the subsequent overtime restart, Logano made it look easy. The reigning series champion cleared Blaney through the first two corners, as Chastain charged into second from the bottom lane.
Two laps later, Logano was on his way to Victory Lane, having scored the second straight win for Team Penske after Austin Cindric won at Talladega last Sunday.
“The sport changes so quickly,” Logano said after climbing from his car. “It’s crazy how you can just ride these rollercoasters and just proud of the team. Finally got (sponsor) AAA Insurance into Victory Lane. They’ve been a partner of mine since I’ve been to Penske, so 13, 14 years. I’ve yet to win with them. It was awesome to get that done here.”
Logano had to work his way forward from his 27th-place starting position. He did so relentlessly and without the sorts of mistakes that doomed the winning chances of others.
“Slowly, methodically, a couple at a time,” Logano said of his drive. “We had a really tough pit stall situation. The pit crew did a good job of managing that and just grabbed a couple (of positions) here and there.
“The car was fast. I knew that yesterday. We just did a poor job qualifying. Just grinded it. Just keep grinding a couple here and a couple there and eventually get a win here. It’s nice to get one. Real nice.”
Similarly, Chastain started 31st and didn’t make his presence known until the closing laps.
‘Gosh, that’s a working day,” Chastain said. “Just no confidence in the car yesterday. Y’all saw that. Just the speed of the Trackhouse cars on Saturdays is just terrible. We’re just not confident, all three drivers.
“So there was one pit stop today that (crew chief) Phil Surgen and the group—it takes a ton of people back at Trackhouse and on the box here in GM at Chevrolet. They made me a confident driver all of a sudden with one adjustment. It was small stuff. It doesn’t even make sense, but after that I was a confident driver.”
Blaney came home third, followed by Kyle Larson, who led a race-high 90 laps but surrendered the top spot to McDowell on the Lap 245 restart.
“You don’t want to give up the lead on a mile and a half,” Larson said. “It’s hard to get it back. Yeah, Michael just did a good job timing it.”
Erik Jones was fifth, scoring his first top five since last year’s fall race at Talladega. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon, John Hunter Nemechek, Christopher Bell and Daniel Suarez completed the top 10.
Other expected contenders fell by the wayside as the race progressed.
Denny Hamlin’s streak of 21 consecutive lead-lap finishes—eighth-most all-time in the Cup Series—came to an abrupt end on Lap 75. One circuit earlier, Hamlin lost power with an engine the team was running for the third time.
As Hamlin slowed, flames shot from beneath the chassis of the No. 11 Toyota. Hamlin stopped the car, which was enveloped in dark smoke and climbed to safety.
“It was blowing up for about a lap or so before it really detonated,” Hamlin said. “I tried to keep it off to keep it from full detonating.
“That was so they can diagnose exactly what happened to it. It’s tough to say exactly what it is, but they’ll go back and look at it and we’ll find out in a few weeks.”
A promising run for Las Vegas winner Josh Berry likewise ended early on Sunday. Berry had led 41 laps and was running at the front of the field on Lap 125 when the treacherous bump in Turn 4 upset his No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford.
Berry slid into the outside wall, slamming the barrier on the driver’s side of the car.
“Just started to approach the lapped traffic,” said Berry, who returned to the track after repairs, 84 laps down. “You have no choice but to run the opposite lane. Your car is never going to turn if you follow them. I went around the 62 (Jesse Love) on the outside and felt pretty decent about it. Then caught the 51 (Cody Ware) and was working on the 51 and hit that bump and got loose.
“I don’t know what I would do too much different. Obviously, in these cars, especially at a place like this, if you’re going to be fast, it’s going to be uncomfortable and you’re going to be on edge. Unfortunately, it bit us today.”
In a race that produced 12 cautions for 73 laps, Austin Cindric led 60 laps but fell victim to a four-car crash on Lap 247. Ten laps earlier, pole winner Carson Hocevar, who led the first 22 laps but was relegated to the back of the field when caution interrupted a green-flag cycle of pit stops on Lap 219, suffered a similar fate in a three-car wreck.
William Byron, who finished 13th, retained the series lead by 13 points over Larson.
NASCAR Cup Series Race – Würth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY
Texas Motor Speedway
Fort Worth, Texas
Sunday, May 4, 2025
- (27) Joey Logano, Ford, 271.
- (31) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 271.
- (24) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 271.
- (4) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 271.
- (14) Erik Jones, Toyota, 271.
- (34) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 271.
- (19) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 271.
- (28) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 271.
- (16) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 271.
- (25) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 271.
- (32) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 271.
- (23) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 271.
- (2) William Byron, Chevrolet, 271.
- (21) Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 271.
- (15) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 271.
- (29) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 271.
- (13) Zane Smith, Ford, 271.
- (12) Chris Buescher, Ford, 271.
- (20) Cole Custer, Ford, 271.
- (26) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 271.
- (17) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 271.
- (37) Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, 271.
- (6) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 271.
- (1) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 270.
- (3) Austin Cindric, Ford, 268.
- (5) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, Accident, 265.
- (22) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, Suspension, 254.
- (30) Brad Keselowski, Ford, Accident, 246.
- (33) Ryan Preece, Ford, Accident, 237.
- (36) Cody Ware, Ford, Accident, 237.
- (35) Jesse Love(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 217.
- (7) Josh Berry, Ford, 187.
- (9) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, Accident, 179.
- (18) Noah Gragson, Ford, Accident, 172.
- (11) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, Accident, 172.
- (10) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, Accident, 172.
- (38) Chad Finchum, Ford, Accident, 167.
- (8) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, Engine, 73.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 116.885 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 28 Mins, 40 Secs. Margin of Victory: .346 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 12 for 73 laps.
Lead Changes: 20 among 13 drivers.
Lap Leaders: C. Hocevar 1-22;D. Hamlin 23;A. Cindric 24-73;T. Reddick 74;A. Cindric 75-83;J. Berry 84-124;K. Larson 125-126;A. Cindric 127;T. Gilliland 128-131;K. Larson 132-166;A. Bowman 167;W. Byron 168-189;K. Larson 190-220;J. Nemechek 221;K. Larson 222-243;M. McDowell 244-252;R. Blaney 253;M. McDowell 254-263;J. Logano 264-268;R. Blaney 269;J. Logano 270-271.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Kyle Larson 4 times for 90 laps; Austin Cindric 3 times for 60 laps; Josh Berry 1 time for 41 laps; William Byron 1 time for 22 laps; Carson Hocevar 1 time for 22 laps; Michael McDowell 2 times for 19 laps; Joey Logano 2 times for 7 laps; Todd Gilliland 1 time for 4 laps; Ryan Blaney 2 times for 2 laps; Denny Hamlin 1 time for 1 lap; John Hunter Nemechek 1 time for 1 lap; Tyler Reddick 1 time for 1 lap; Alex Bowman 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 2,45,21,5,17,77,24,54,71,43
Stage #2 Top Ten: 5,45,48,60,23,77,24,12,22,8
