NASCAR Texas 2016 results: Full finishing order for AAA Texas 500

With rain coming, Joey Logano knew he didn’t have much time to run down and pass Carl Edwards so that he could be the beneficiary when the sky inevitable opened up and forced NASCAR to end Sunday’s playoff race short of its schedule distance.

But Logano simply couldn’t catch Edwards and when the rain did began falling heavily with 40 laps remaining, it was Edwards declared the winner at Texas Motor Speedway. And with it Edwards automatically transfers to the final round of the Chase for the Sprint where he’ll be one of four drivers competing for the series title in two weeks.

“We just didn’t have enough laps,” Logano said. “It seemed like the momentum swung the other way with about three or four laps to go before the caution came out and I was starting to catch (Edwards) pretty rapidly. Unfortunately it just started raining and that was the end of the race. It is what it is. We are going to be close.”

For Logano, Sunday’s second-place finish does provisionally have him in position to advance to the championship bracket on points with one race remaining in the semifinal round.

That margin is thin, however. Logano is just one point up of Matt Kenseth, the first driver below the cutline entering next weekend’s elimination race at Phoenix International Raceway, and two points ahead of Denny Hamlin. The closeness of the standings leaves no room for error, and to avoid getting knocked out Logano will in likelihood need to finish in the top five.

“There are a lot of cars close going into Phoenix,” Logano said. “It will be entertaining. It will probably be the closest Phoenix race we have ever seen as far as points. It should be a fun one for sure.”

When the race finally started after a nearly six-hour delay because of rain and a track that wouldn’t dry, Logano appeared as if he was going to roll to his second victory in three weeks. He led 178 of the first 188 laps, routinely building up multi-second gaps on whomever ran second.

Logano’s night changed when Martin Truex Jr. beat him off pit road during a sequence of green flag pit stops in the middle portion of the 500-mile race. Once in traffic, Logano’s car no longer handled like it had and he fell to fifth.

With some chassis adjustments, Logano gradually worked his toward the front. But by then, rain was imminent and there weren’t enough laps left.

“When you are that close to winning and you lead the most laps, second stinks,” Logano said. “That is our goal every week, to win, and anything short of that is a failure.”

AAA TEXAS 500 FINISHING ORDER