“There’s a lot of lessons learned, and we move on.” Joey Logano said these words after a chaotic trip to Talladega Superspeedway last weekend. From receiving backlash for his radio diatribe against his teammate to losing his 5th-place finish due to a failed post-race technical inspection, Logano went through a lot. However, the No. 22 Team Penske driver focused on what is important. Logano worked hard, persevered, and proved his detractors wrong, including an MLB legend.

The Würth 400, presented by Liqui Moly, was a wild showdown. Several seasoned NASCAR Cup Series drivers got caught in crippling wrecks. However, Joey Logano dodged the obstacles and wove his way to the front. At the end of it all, he got the sweetest victory, as the person who bashed him last week ate humble pie.

Joey Logano restores his respect

Well, it does take hard work to redeem your worth. Joey Logano chipped off quite a bit of it because of his harsh and unhealthy barrage of expletives against Austin Cindric. During the last lap of Stage 2 in Talladega, Cindric broke a line of Fords and let Bubba Wallace slip through – that is what ticked off Logano, leading him to call Cindric a ‘dumba—‘ on his team radio, amongst other colorful words. When Cindric went on to win the race and Logano incurred a penalty, fans invoked karma. What is more? MLB Atlanta Braves legend Chipper Jones also joined the conversation. He had remarked, “Good teammates are hard to come by,” among other pointed critiques. But lo-and-behold, how the tables turned at Texas Motor Speedway.

Joey Logano survived a chaotic Sunday afternoon and a two-lap dash in overtime to win his first race of the season. Starting from a 27th place in the field, Logano wove his way to the front row expertly. His 37th win of his Cup Series career came with a 0.346-second margin of victory at the 1.5-mile Fort Worth oval. Consequently, Chipper Jones was forced to backtrack his critical words. The MLB star posted on X: “Congratulations to @joeylogano. A HOF driver with a masterful win. This is what NASCAR fans expect from you. Hard charging wins and gracious top 5s and 10s. Well done!” 

This admission did not come easily. After Chipper Jones’ sly jabs in Talladega, Joey Logano had mounted a counter-criticism of his own. “Has Chipper Jones ever driven a race car at Talladega?” Logano said. “That would be my first question. I’m pretty certain he hasn’t. That’s like me saying something about baseball. I know nothing about baseball. That’s like me saying something that he did in baseball that was wrong.”

What is more? Logano even spoke on his teammate’s behalf. “We’re still teammates, right? …You’re going to sometimes not see eye to eye. Everyone wants to stick up for their side, obviously, but we just have to come to some kind of common ground and move forward, because no matter what, he’s still my brother, right?”

But it took only a resounding playoff clinching victory in Texas for Joey Logano to actually extract kind words from his detractor. And the way that the Team Penske driver did it was jaw-dropping as well.

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‘Sliced bread’ slicing through the rubble

If there is a Cup Series driver who can flip the script wildly, it is Joey Logano. We saw during the 2024 Cup Series playoffs how Logano was almost disqualified, and yet he went on to clinch two victories and even the championship! Similarly, chances looked slim for the No. 22 driver on Sunday, as he had to navigate through rubble. The Texas Cup race featured a whopping 11 cautions. Denny Hamlin was the first victim as his No. 11 Toyota went up in flames and caught a DNF. Then, the final stage ensued with complete madness. Jesse Love, making only his second Cup Series start, spun out and crashed.

Joey Logano himself was involved in a wreck. On lap 172, the seventh caution of the race saw a wild crash. It involved Bubba Wallace spinning into Noah Gragson and collecting AJ Allmendinger, Chad Finchum, Joey Logano, and Alex Bowman. Wallace hit the wall in the backstretch, then bumped Logano to start the crash. Despite this setback, Logano could still hold on. By lap 221, he had infiltrated the top-five fold. In the last few laps, Michael McDowell tried to block Logano. The always-aggressive Logano never lifted, and McDowell relented before corner entry, giving him the inside line and the race lead.

After clinching his victory after just leading for 7 laps, Joey Logano explained his day. Despite the multiple setbacks, he and his team persevered. “We had a really tough pit stall situation. The pit crew did a good job of managing that and just grabbed a couple here and there. The car was fast. I knew that yesterday. We just did a poor job qualifying. Just grinded it. Just keep grinding a couple here and a couple there, and eventually get a win here. It’s nice to get one. Real nice.”

Evidently, Joey Logano is basking in the glory of sweet redemption. As he becomes the second Ford driver to win this season, let’s see what Logano has in store for us next.