After lucky escape, Joey Logano’s car gets destroyed in pit road incident

Logano will not go back-to-back at Texas after a major crash on pit road

Joey Logano went from feeling immense relief after a lucky escape to seeing his race end on the slowest part of the race track: pit road.

The defending Texas winner was running up inside the top 15 when William Byron went spinning in front of him. Byron got on the throttle, keeping his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet off the wall, but also bringing it back down the track in front of oncoming traffic.

Logano swerved high, barely avoiding a direct hit with the sideways car. There were celebrations on the radio as Logano realized how fortunate he was. Unfortunately, the positive vibes did not last.

Chaos followed on pit road, and Logano was at the center of it. After taking two right-side tires, Logano found himself in the middle of a traffic jam. Cole Custer nearly came to a stop as he was trying to get to his box, and Logano ran directly into the back of him. Custer sustained damage to the right-rear, while Logano’s entire left-front fender was ripped off, and the wheel broken.

And with that, the Team Penske driver’s day was over. He will finish 37th. Custer also had to go behind the wall for repairs before returning to the race.

"Everyone was trying to get two tires and the whole field is passing you because the pit stops are so fast with two tires," said Logano outside the infield care center. "They checked up in front of me and stopped. You're trying to look, you're trying to get up out of the way. And they just stopped. There was nothing I could do. I couldn't stop in time. It's been a tough year, to say the least."

Logano was also 'proud' of the No. 22 team, as he had impressive speed despite a bad qualifying effort on Saturday. But the fact that they had a promising day ahead of them "just makes it hurt more."