NASCAR at Richmond recap: Joey Logano mixes patience with aggressiveness to capture win

Joey Logano was serving as a Fox guest analyst during Saturday’s Xfinity Series race when he received a text from crew chief Todd Gordon informing him that debris had been found in the transmission of Logano’s No. 22 car and Team Penske had swapped it out.

The change meant Logano forfeited his fifth-place starting spot and would lineup at the back of the 38-car grid for Sunday’s Monster Energy Cup Series race. Not an insurmountable setback, but because of the tight confines at the 0.75-mile Richmond International Raceway, recouping the lost positions would be a challenge, prompting Gordon to instill a message into Logano beginning Sunday morning.

What Gordon needed from his driver was to be patient; for Logano to throttle back, pick his spots moving forward and only go 80 percent. That request made Logano, renowned for his aggressiveness — as Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, and many others can attest — question Gordon’s game plan. He told Penske executive Walt Czarnecki, “You pay me to run 100 percent.” Czarnecki’s response: “Well, today will be a little bit different.”

Patience is imperative at Richmond, where drivers frequently bounce off one another as if they’re wheeling bumper cars at the local amusement park, often resulting in punctured tires. Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Matt Kenseth were just a few who experienced such an issue on Sunday.

But Logano did not have any problems with his tires. He kept his car clean, driving a smart, patient race. When the first stage concluded on Lap 100 he was 10th and stayed up front the rest of the afternoon.

With Logano doing his part, Gordon contributed to the comeback by keeping his driver on the track when a caution came out with 32 laps remaining. That vaulted Logano to second, positioning him to win the Toyotas Owners 400, which he did when he passed Kyle Larson for the lead with 17 laps to go.

“Todd made some good calls at the end, got us some good track position,” Logano said. “We had a good pit stop at the end that maintained the track position and then some good restarts that were able to get the lead back when everyone else stayed out on old tires and just try to check out, that was the goal.”

But while Gordon came up with the plan and called an astute race, Logano deserves his share of credit.

The 26-year-old doesn’t garner the attention as one of the future faces of NASCAR, a popular topic this week with Dale Earnhardt Jr. becoming the fourth superstar driver to announce his retirement since 2015. Yet, Logano may be the best among an emerging crop of young talents, which includes Blaney, Jones, Larson, and Chase Elliott. A suggestion that gains credence when you consider Logano is already an 18-time Cup winner and twice advanced to the championship playoff round.

And on Sunday, Logano demonstrated his skill set is continuing to evolve. Although tempting, he avoided shoving his way to the front. Being patient may have gone against his natural instinct, but starting in the back on a short track like Richmond required a delicate touch.

“I am a balls-to-the-wall type of guy, hard as I can, all the time,” Logano said. “That’s the way I’m wired.

“That’s what’s proven to be successful at certain racetracks. Richmond is not one of them. Richmond is one you pay the penalty if you go too hard.”

Of course, to win necessitated Logano reverting to his usual form during crunch time. He was aggressive on two late-race restarts, first getting ahead of teammate Brad Keselowski, who had the better car, then passing Larson and putting enough distance between himself and the field that Keselowski didn’t have enough laps to close the gap.

“At the end, take that 80 percent thing and throw that out the window,” Logano said. “It’s game time. I was able to give it 100 percent.”