Even though he only led seven laps and started the race 27th, Team Penske's Joey Logano got around Spire Motorsports' Michael McDowell with four laps to go and prevailed in an overtime finish to pick up his first win of the season in Sunday's Wurth 400 at Texas, winning by 0.346 seconds over Trackhouse Racing driver Ross Chastain and making a move up the NASCAR Cup Series standings.
The win comes one week after Logano was disqualified following the Jack Link's 500 at Talladega for a missing nut on a spoiler bracket. Sunday was Logano's 37th career win and his first top-five finish of the season. Behind Logano and Chastain were Logano's Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney (third), Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson (fourth) and Legacy Motor Club's Erik Jones (fifth).
Updated Cup Series standings after Wurth 400 at Texas
Driver Standings | Points | Behind |
|---|---|---|
1. William Byron | 421 | 0 |
2. Kyle Larson | 408 | -13 |
3. Denny Hamlin | 338 | -83 |
4. Chase Elliott | 338 | -83 |
5. Tyler Reddick | 337 | -84 |
6. Christopher Bell | 335 | -86 |
7. Ryan Blaney | 313 | -108 |
8. Bubba Wallace | 306 | -115 |
9. Joey Logano | 288 | -133 |
10. Alex Bowman | 284 | -137 |
With a Stage 2 win and fourth-place finish, Larson gains 18 points on teammate William Byron, who remains in the points lead (+13) after Texas. Despite Chase Elliott's lackluster 16th-place finish, an engine issue to Denny Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota late in Stage 1 and the subsequent last-place finish that followed resulted in Hamlin losing 31 points to Byron's points lead and dropped to a tie for third in the standings with Elliott.
Tyler Reddick leaps ahead of Christopher Bell for fifth while Blaney overtakes Bubba Wallace for seventh following the 23XI Racing driver's 33rd-place result. Logano jumps back into the top 10 and slots into ninth after his bounce-back performance at Texas, dropping Alex Bowman to 10th.
Notable drivers outside the top 10 include Chastain (11th), Austin Cindric (14th), Kyle Busch (16th), Ty Gibbs (22nd), Josh Berry (24th) and Brad Keselowski (32nd). Keep in mind, a win will most likely guarantee a driver a playoff berth with 16 spots up for grabs. After Texas, Byron, Bell, Berry, Larson, Hamlin, Cindric and Logano are the season's seven winners.
Currently, that 16th and final spot for postseason eligibility goes to Hyak Motorsports' Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (+12) over Busch. Busch is 16th in the overall standings, but Berry (24th) vaults ahead of him in the playoff standings due to his Las Vegas win earlier this season. Obviously, things are going to change, but that is the position drivers currently find themselves in after Texas.
One thing to keep in mind is the importance of both regular-season points standings and playoff standings. While drivers with wins vault to the top of the points standings and guarantee themselves a playoff spot, assuming there are no more than 16 winners, the overall points are equally important. The regular-season champion by season's end will earn an additional 15 playoff points, second place will get 10 and drivers third-to-10th in points will receive points in descending order down to one point for 10th.