Joey Logano and the No. 22 AAA Ford Fusion team suffered an early-race blown tire, which put the team behind the wall for nearly 60 laps, relegating them to a 40th-place finish on Sunday afternoon at Texas Motor Speedway in the AAA Texas 500. Logano qualified fourth for the event and settled into that same position early on. Unfortunately, on lap 10, Logano suffered a cut left rear tire while looking to make a pass for third. The tire disintegrated and caused significant internal and body damage to the AAA Ford Fusion, forcing the team to take the car behind the wall. Crew chief Todd Gordon led the repair work and Logano was able to get back out on the track, losing just 60-plus laps in the process. Once the car was back on the track, Logano was turning laps as quick as the leaders, but couldn’t make up many track positions with minimal fallout amongst other cars. Logano would go on to finish 40th, keeping him eighth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings. Logano sits 63 points behind leader Jeff Gordon and is in a “must-win” situation next week at Phoenix International Raceway in order to advance to the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“This is just part of it. Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. We will be ready for Phoenix. This team is strong. We didn’t take any wind out of our sails today and we showed how fast this thing was even after we crashed. I am very proud of our team. Next week will be the same as this week. This was a must-win situation as well. If we finished second today, we would be in the same boat going into Phoenix. I feel great about our chances at Phoenix. It has been a great race track for us in the past. I felt like this track was a great one for us as well. It is unfortunate that we finished how we did.”