“To me, it’s a pretty fun race because you can race with your hair down a little bit,” Joey Logano said in the run-up to the All-Star Race. Having won at the track on the last outing, the million-dollar prize sounded like the perfect way to round things out. No points on the line, a ticket to the playoffs secured: it should have been a relaxing Sunday evening for Logano, right? “The race is a bit of an all-or-nothing kind of race. You’ve got nothing to lose. You can’t lose any points. You’ve got nothing to lose and a million bucks to gain,” the No. 22 driver added.

But come race day, the story went down a different path completely! The reigning champ was on the verge of defending his All-Star Race win from 2024, only to finish 0.829 seconds behind Christopher Bell at North Wilkesboro Speedway. His battle with Christopher Bell left a sour taste. Logano has never been the most gracious loser, but he surprised everyone by saying that Christopher Bell “kind of just ran me up into the wall.”

It was a heated battle. Joey Logano was in the lead at North Wilkesboro Speedway, and was hopeful of keeping Christopher Bell at bay despite his rival having fresh Goodyear’s during the closing stages. Both drivers dueled for much of the last 20 laps, with the Team Penske racer blocking the No. 20 Toyota and attempting to take his lane away. Meanwhile, Bell looked to capitalize on an opening and eventually got under Logano with just nine laps to go. From that point on, there was no looking back.

After the race, Logano wasn’t holding back. “It is what it is… He did it enough so I couldn’t get back to him. I was gonna show him what fair was. I just couldn’t get there. I’ll race him the same way. That’s all it is. This race is for a million dollars, I get it. But we race each other every week. We’re like elephants, we don’t forget anything.” His words rang through NASCAR as most in the community were confused. Jordan Bianchi’s words summarized it when he said, “If the shoe were on the other foot, Logano would have done the same exact thing…I don’t know how you can be critical of how Christopher Bell raced. “

Time has a unique way of changing perspectives, even for a driver as competitive as Joey Logano. In a surprising turn of events, the three-time Cup Series winner took a dramatic U-turn and took back his comments regarding Christopher Bell. Now that the anger had subsided, Joey Logano had a completely different view with regard to how the closing laps played out. Taking back his words, the racer told NBC Sports, “When I went back and re-watched it, I was like, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. If he did that (move Logano up the track) the first time he got to me, I’d be like, ‘Dude, why would you do that?’ But he made solid attempts to pass me. I ran him all up and down the racetrack. So I opened the door.”

Logano knows what it takes to win at North Wilkesboro. His No. 22 Ford led a staggering 199 out of 200 laps in the All-Star Race last year, and he was determined to maintain his lead after leading 139 laps at the short track. However, in hindsight, the racer humbly accepted his mistake by saying, “I set the tone that we’re going to race like assholes. It’s OK that he did that to me. But in the moment you’re just pissed, right? You’re just like, ‘He ran me up the track.’ Then when I watched it, I was like, ‘Nah, it’s probably warranted.’”

With Logano admitting his fault, it’s no surprise that Bell was surprised by his rival’s reaction. “He was frustrated?” Bell asked during the press conference. “That is interesting. I genuinely would not have guessed that.” Did that mean the No. 20 car was daunted by Logano’s warning? Not at all! “Well, I had got to him a couple times before and he made it very difficult on me, as he should. I got my run, and I took the moment, as I should. Yeah, I don’t think that I did anything that Joey has not done, and I’ve seen Joey do much worse. We will continue on.”

The Connecticut native wasn’t just upset at Bell, but at Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith as well for the timing of the promoter’s caution. The Lap 216 yellow flag proved to be the difference maker in the end, and Joey Logano went on an emotional rant in the post-race interview, going on to say, “Me and Marcus Smith aren’t seeing eye to eye right now.” However, the ‘real’ problem wasn’t the caution itself, but the No. 22 team’s strategy, as the racer stayed out along with five others while the rest of the grid went into the pits.

Hamlin reveals what made the difference at North Wilkesboro

The result could have gone either way. At least that’s what Denny Hamlin believes, even though a dominant Christopher Bell sliced through the grid effortlessly during the closing stages of the All-Star Race. Joey Logano and his No. 22 crew took a gamble of holding onto their track position, and it almost worked. However, beating the new Goodyear’s proved to be a task just a little beyond the 34-year-old’s reach, but the veteran racer couldn’t help but feel that Team Penske’s strategy was on point when the promoter’s caution was waved.

Sharing his thoughts on the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin said, “Truthfully, I thought it was the right call to stay out when I saw that he had five people staying out with him. So many of these restarts results on whether they’re a success or a failure comes down to what happens on the first few corners. I’m pretty certain of this is that I watched the first corner and had Christopher Bell not been able to get to the inside of Carson Hocevar, he doesn’t win the race. But he got three cars in that first lap, and that’s when it was over.”

Joey Logano’s crew chief, Paul Wolfe, also felt that the result at North Wilkesboro Speedway was a missed opportunity. The No. 22 crew banked on the five other cars, including teammate Ryan Blaney, to slow down incoming traffic, but as luck would have it, the No. 12 “had an issue off [Turn] 4 there and got sideways.” It just wasn’t meant to be this time around, but the heartbreak will motivate the racer to go all guns blazing at the Coca-Cola 600. Could Logano redeem himself at the crown-jewel event? Let us know in the comments!