Joey Logano creates personal record in his 588th NASCAR Cup Series Race

Joey Logano won at Texas Motor Speedway after starting in 27th place — the worst starting position he's ever had in a race that he ended up winning. This was also his 588th career start, making the win a major milestone.

The information was shared by NASCAR Insights on X. It was mentioned in the caption that Joey Logano drove from 27th to the win. Additionally, the caption read,

“Joey Logano drove from 27th to win at Texas Motor Speedway, his 37th career win. 27th is the worst Joey Logano has EVER started a Cup race and gone on to win.”

In the Würth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway, Joey Logano took the lead in the final laps after overtaking Michael McDowell, who crashed shortly afterwards. From there, Logano held off Ross Chastain in a two-lap overtime finish, winning by 0.346 seconds. This was Logano’s first win of the 2025 season, his second at Texas, and an important recovery after a tough previous week. Just one race earlier, he had been disqualified from Talladega due to a car inspection issue.

Logano credited his No. 22 Team Penske Ford crew and the car's speed for the result. The Texas win also gave Team Penske back-to-back wins, following Austin Cindric’s win at Talladega. The win was also Logano's first top-five finish of 2025 and ended a difficult stretch without strong results.

The race itself had 12 cautions, 73 laps under yellow, and several wrecks, including a major crash involving top names like Carson Hocevar and Austin Cindric. Logano avoided the trouble and stayed clean, something others couldn't manage.

McDowell, who had been leading just before the end, lost control after being passed by Logano and slammed into the wall. That crash set up the overtime restart. Logano pulled ahead and never looked back. Logano’s quote post-race,

“The sport changes so quickly… The car was fast. I just did a poor job qualifying. Just grinding a couple (of spots) here and a couple there.” (via NASCAR.com)

He wasn’t the only driver to rally from the back — Ross Chastain started 31st and came in second. Kyle Larson led the most laps but finished fourth. Ryan Blaney, Logano’s teammate, finished third.

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“The penalty hurts, but it was a mistake.” – Joey Logano on starting the 2025 season with a painful record

Before the win in Texas, Joey Logano was sitting on an unwanted milestone. After being disqualified from Talladega for a missing nut on his car’s rear spoiler, Logano became the first defending NASCAR Cup Series champion to go 10 races into the following season without a top-five finish.

According to journalist Seth Eggert, this broke the 36-year-old record previously held by Bill Elliott, who went nine races without a top-five after winning the 1988 title. Eggert shared the stat in a tweet,

"As a result of [Joey Logano]'s disqualification at [Talladega], the [Team Penske] driver now holds the record for longest stretch to start a season by a defending champion without a top-5 finish at 10 races. [Bill Elliott] held the record from 1989 - 2025."

Logano had originally finished fifth at Talladega, but the missing part — a nut from the rear spoiler bracket — led to a post-race inspection failure. As a result, Logano was moved from fifth to 39th. Teammate Ryan Preece, who had finished second, was also disqualified in the same race.

Speaking later about the issue, Logano explained (via Racing News) that the problem wasn’t intentional. He said,

“We're not the people that, like, blatantly are going to go out there and cheat. It’s not who we are. It was a mistake that essentially, the nut came off the bolt back there on the brace…”

He added that while the car might have had a slight advantage, it didn’t affect the racing outcome:

“Did it change where we finished in the race? No… but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s not by the rules, so you’ve got to accept the penalty. And the penalty, I mean, it hurts.”

Until the Texas race, Joey Logano had no top-fives, one top-10, and an average finish of 18 in 11 starts this season. His win lifted him to 9th in the standings with 288 points, still 133 behind the leader. But it gave his season a much-needed turnaround and ended the record-breaking dry spell.