logo
NASCAR Texas race winners and losers: Joey Logano finally wins, Kyle Busch crashes again

NASCAR Texas race winners and losers: Joey Logano finally wins, Kyle Busch crashes again

Yahoo06-05-2025
Joey Logano won the WURTH 400 NASCAR Cup Series race on May 4 at Texas Motor Speedway with a vintage performance, working through the field.
Logano, the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series champion, held off a late charge from Ross Chastain and Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney in overtime to score the 37th win of his NASCAR Cup Series career.
Advertisement
The tunnel under the surface of turn 4 at Texas caused trouble for several cars with a small bump in the track. That bump caused some drivers to bottom out their cars and spin, including Josh Berry, Kyle Busch and others.
Here are the winners and losers from the NASCAR Texas race.
L.W. WRIGHT PART 1: The long Talladega con: How L.W. Wright talked his way onto NASCAR's fastest track
LEGEND OF L.W. WRIGHT PART 2: The long Talladega con: Could L.W. Wright drive as fast as he could talk?
Winners
Joey Logano
Joey Logano usually finds a way to win races he looks out of at various points. Logano, the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion, started 27th at Texas and meticulously worked his way through the field to get toward the front and kept his cool to get through the big block Michael McDowell threw at him before driving off to win the race in overtime and lock himself into the playoffs.
Team Penske
Logano's win gives Team Penske its second win in a row, following Austin Cindric's win at Talladega. Cindric also won the first stage of the Texas race to give the team momentum. Of course, Ryan Blaney was running toward the front for most of the final stage at Texas and had a chance to win the race at various points before finishing third.
Ross Chastain
Ross Chastain charged virtually out of nowhere to earn a second-place finish at Texas for his best of the season. This is Chastain's second top-5 finish and sixth top 10 of the 2025 season. He's still searching for a win to lock himself into the playoffs, but strong showings like he had in Texas will help his cause.
Advertisement
HOW IT HAPPENED: NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas: Live updates, highlights, leaderboard for WURTH 400
Losers
Michael McDowell
McDowell was running hard toward the front after a gutsy call for two tires on a pit stop with 46 laps to go. McDowell was leading laps and appeared poised to have a shot to win the race, but he tried to make a big block on Joey Logano and ended up crashing after getting loose exiting turn 2 a lap later.
Kyle Busch
Kyle Busch finds himself on this side of the list again following a 20th-place finish at Texas. He spun from third place on lap 228 when he was close to contending for a win. He was later caught in a crash with Brad Keselowski, essentially taking him out of the running as his winless streak extends to 68 races, dating back to June 4, 2023, at Gateway.
Josh Berry
Berry was leading in the second stage of the race and appeared to be pulling away when he ran into lapped traffic with Cody Ware, changing his line and hitting the small bump in turn 4, bottoming out his car and spinning down the frontstretch. Berry was dealt his fourth DNF of the season.
Advertisement
Follow sports writer Austin Chastain on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @ChastainAJ or reach him via email at achastain@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR Texas winners and losers: Joey Logano wins, Michael McDowell crashes
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Cody Ware's Daytona diary: Why not us at Coke Zero Sugar 400?
Cody Ware's Daytona diary: Why not us at Coke Zero Sugar 400?

Yahoo

time33 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Cody Ware's Daytona diary: Why not us at Coke Zero Sugar 400?

Editor's note: Cody Ware, driver of the No. 51 Ford Mustang for Rick Ware Racing, is writing a daily Coke Zero Sugar 400 diary, giving a peek into NASCAR life during race week at Daytona International Speedway. This is Monday's entry. It's good to be back with the Daytona Beach News-Journal. This publication was kind enough to have me provide a daily diary during Daytona Speedweek and, six months later, I'm here to provide a look into how we get ready for the Coke Zero Sugar 400. The summertime race at Daytona is a completely different animal from the Daytona 500. We qualify late in the day on Friday and then we race on Saturday night. Back in February, it was a full immersion with practice, time trials, qualifying races and more practice, all in the lead up to the Daytona 500. Here in August, it's a single lap of qualifying on Friday before 160 laps on Saturday night. The time at the track is much lower, but the stakes are still high. It's 100 fewer miles than the Daytona 500, but the points pay the same. And just like a Daytona 500 win punches your ticket to the playoffs, a win in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 does the same thing. However, for those who haven't won yet this season and are outside of the top-16 cutoff to make the 10-race playoffs — which includes yours truly — it's the last chance to make NASCAR's version of the postseason. 'Win and you're in' is the mantra this weekend at Daytona. With that comes a heighted level of aggression. There are guys who will take a lot more risk trying to win their way into the playoffs. Some guys might be less aggressive, some might be willing to take all the risk, either because it's their last chance to make the playoffs, or because they're already in and they feel like they're playing with house money, so they go hard for another win. Just having good awareness and navigating all that is important. Last year at this race, I scored my best career NASCAR Cup Series result. I finished fourth, just a few clicks behind first-time winner Harrison Burton. It was kind of a chaotic race, but I guess typical for the summer race at Daytona. There were 40 lead changes and two massive, multicar accidents that collected nearly half the field. It was a bit of survival and a bit of racing hard. It was really about the timing of when I made decisions. It wasn't about racing hard versus not racing hard. It was knowing when to race and when to ride, and that played a lot into our result. Daytona is more of a mental game. It's like playing chess at 200 mph versus beating and banging. I feel like I've honed my craft at the superspeedways and the results show. Now is the time to capitalize and put our No. 51 Arby's Ford Mustang Dark Horse in victory lane. We always seem to do well at Daytona, and I think even more so in the summer, so why not us? I think we have just as good a shot as anybody to win on Saturday night. Our preparation for Saturday began on Monday, at least from my perspective. The team juggles the race that's next up with the race that's next week and the week after that. I'm pretty focused on the race in front of me, and when it's over, I try to put it in the rearview mirror and focus on what's immediately ahead. Last Saturday, we raced at Richmond. We got back home to Charlotte around 2 a.m. on Sunday, and I think I laid my head down a little bit before 3 a.m. So, Sunday was kind of a recovery day. My work for Daytona began Monday. I hit the gym and focused mostly on cardio. I wanted to get the heart pumping, get a good sweat and get sharpened up ahead of our team meeting. Usually, our team meeting is on Tuesday afternoon, but we've got a Goodyear tire test this Tuesday, so we needed to move up our meeting so we could rehash everything from Richmond while it was still fresh in our minds, all while looking ahead to Daytona. The work we do on weekends is there for everyone to see, but the work we do Monday through Thursday ahead of a race weekend is kind of under the radar. My goal this week with these diaries is to show you all that goes into what we hope is a very successful weekend at Daytona. This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Cody Ware: Daytona summer race is different animal than Daytona 500

NASCAR playoff standings: Who's above points cutline before Daytona race? Who's in danger?
NASCAR playoff standings: Who's above points cutline before Daytona race? Who's in danger?

Yahoo

time33 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

NASCAR playoff standings: Who's above points cutline before Daytona race? Who's in danger?

William Byron clinched the NASCAR regular-season championship at Richmond Raceway last weekend, but that's not the biggest Cup Series standings storyline entering the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Fourteen of the 16 postseason spots are occupied, having been taken by drivers who scored at least one victory during the first 25 races. With one event to go, only two positions remain up for grabs. Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman possess those 15th and 16th spots — for now. A win by a driver outside the playoff bubble, like Austin Dillon snatched at Richmond, could end one of their hopes, allowing just one driver to reach the playoffs on points. Bowman sits 60 points above the cutline. Chris Buescher follows in 17th. Byron secured the regular-season title by placing 12th during the Cook Out 400. The lone man who could've caught him, Chase Elliott, finished last after a crash. Byron earned 15 playoff bonus points as a result. Here is the full picture. NASCAR playoff standings: Alex Bowman, Chris Buescher on the bubble Denny Hamlin (4 wins) Shane van Gisbergen (4 wins) Kyle Larson (3 wins) Christopher Bell (3 wins) William Byron (2 wins) Chase Elliott (1 win) Chase Briscoe (1 win) Ryan Blaney (1 win) Bubba Wallace (1 win) Joey Logano (1 win) Ross Chastain (1 win) Austin Cindric (1 win) Josh Berry (1 win) Austin Dillon (1 win) Tyler Reddick (89 points above cutline) Alex Bowman (+60) Chris Buescher (60 below cutline) Ryan Preece (–94) Kyle Busch (–148) Ty Gibbs (–173) AJ Allmendinger (–181) Brad Keselowski (–189) Carson Hocevar (–197) Michael McDowell (–207) Erik Jones (–213) John Hunter Nemechek (–226) Zane Smith (-244) Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (–251) Daniel Suárez (-252) Justin Haley (–296) Todd Gilliland (-297) Ty Dillon (-313) Noah Gragson (-376) Cole Custer (-378) Riley Herbst (-392) Cody Ware (-517) (This story was updated to add a video.) This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR standings: Which drivers could reach playoffs on points?

Daytona's 'other' race week arrives, and in modern times, there's a lot on the line
Daytona's 'other' race week arrives, and in modern times, there's a lot on the line

Yahoo

time33 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Daytona's 'other' race week arrives, and in modern times, there's a lot on the line

There's been some growing support this year for ditching NASCAR's playoff system — returning to the pre-2004 method of determining the champ through a season-long points race. NBC and partner USA broadcast the last 14 races of the season, including the current 10-race playoffs, and it's hard to imagine them going along with that idea. You're also unlikely to get old-school support from the marketing folks at Daytona International Speedway, where the usual drama is dramatically ramped up due to the added importance of the Coke Zero Sugar 400. Daytona's summertime race, an early-July fixture from 1959-2019, moved to late August in 2020 and, with one exception, has become anchored to the final race slot of the 26-race regular season. Daytona's technical rules, designed to keep the cars at relatively sane speeds, also equalize the field and make the track susceptible to surprise winners. For all the detractors of this form of racing, Daytona is the perfect place to end the regular season and provide one last opportunity for longshot racers to get the win they need to secure a playoff berth. Daytona's summertime race has always been 'the other race' here, given how the season-opening Daytona 500 remains NASCAR's biggest-by-far individual race. Take away the playoff implications, and the 400-miler becomes just another race on the trail — a white-knuckler, sure, but just another race. But chances are, it'd survive just fine. It has a history of adapting. In the beginning, NASCAR had other summer plans for Daytona The ability of Daytona to adapt its summer race plans dates back to the Speedway's infancy. After the track's 1959 opening and February's debut of the Daytona 500, plans for the summer included a Fourth of July Indy-car race, but first, there'd be an April shakedown. Like the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Daytona measured 2½ miles, but while Indy is largely flat, racing's newest monster track included hulking turns banked at 31 degrees. The Indy-style cars were fast — very fast, over 170 mph — but unstable. A.J. Foyt compared it to riding on the wing of an airplane. Two 40-lap races were scheduled, and on Lap 40 of the first, Indy-racing regular George Amick crashed violently and died instantly. The reality was too obvious to ignore — those cars weren't ready for 31-degree banking and speeds some 30 mph faster than Indy's Brickyard. NASCAR president and Daytona Speedway builder Bill France Sr., needing a race and the ticket sales it would generate, jostled the 1959 schedule and added a second NASCAR race to Daytona's calendar, planting it on the Fourth of July. A race initially slated for Raleigh, N.C., would instead become the first Firecracker 250, a 100-lapper featuring most of the NASCAR stars who'd christened the Daytona 500 in February. That change came on the fly. Others would unfold, slowly at first, but eventually changes began coming with regularity as the Firecracker 250 arrived and thrived and this coming week celebrates its 67th running. Early editions of the original Firecracker 250 would last a little over an hour and a half. It'd start in late-morning and end in time for race-day visitors (including many drivers and their families) to pack a lunch and hit the beach. That routine continued, but it became a later lunch in 1963 when the race was lengthened to 160 laps and 400 miles, where it remains today. Well, that's the plan, anyway, but it doesn't always hold up. NASCAR brought overtime finishes to the Cup Series in 2004 in order to guarantee green-flag finishes. Twelve times since then, the race has been extended beyond 160 laps, including in 2011 when David Ragan took the checkers at the end of the 10th overtime lap. And several other times, it took the green a day late due to rain. Daytona's summer race changed sodas from Pepsi to Coke Their numbers are fading, but you occasionally come across someone who calls this one the Firecracker. Yes, time flies, but believe it or not, the Firecracker has carried a soda label for 40 years now. Here's the rundown … 1959-1962: Firecracker 250. 1963-84: Firecracker 400. 1985-88: Pepsi Firecracker 400. 1989-2004: Pepsi 400. 2005-17: Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca Cola. 2018-2025: Coke Zero Sugar 400. The first change — to Pepsi Firecracker 400 — lasted just four years because everyone except the marketing folks still called it the Firecracker. Many of those same people were a bit stunned 15 years later when Coca Cola replaced Pepsi as race sponsor, and stunned again three years later when Coke replaced Pepsi as the official soft drink of Daytona. Pepsi had been one of the original big-name, deep-pocketed corporations that helped Bill France finance the Speedway in the late-'50s, and the relationship seemed forever locked in. Well, they did wait until 16 years after Big Bill's passing. Coke, you may recall (and as the chronology above suggests), did its own rebranding several years ago with its second 'diet' soda. Coke Zero didn't exactly tell the story the brand was wanting to tell, so it became Coke Zero Sugar to drive home the point that, you know, there's no real sugar in there. So now the 400 seems settled comfortably into its role as last-ditch chance to not only send a longshot to Victory Lane, but into the upcoming Cup playoffs. It happened just a year ago when Harrison Burton got his first win of the year and, in fact, the first of his career. Several capable drivers and teams are still searching for a 2025 victory. And some others, like Burton last August, could also make Daytona's summertime nail-biter a career-first Cup Series trophy. Here's a list of racers — some very familiar — who made the Firecracker/Pepsi/Coke 400 their first NASCAR win: A.J. Foyt (1964), Sam McQuagg (1966), Greg Sacks (1985), Jimmy Spencer (1994), John Andretti (1997), Greg Biffle (2003), David Ragan (2011), Aric Almirola (2014), Erik Jones (2018), Justin Haley (2019), William Byron (2020) and Burton last year. So yes, there's a history of such things. — Email Ken Willis at (This story was updated to add a video.) This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Firecracker 250 to Coke Zero Sugar 400, Daytona's summer race endures

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store