RICHMOND Va. — Joey Logano watched someone else celebrate a win he thought he could have had.
“We had a car that was capable of winning for a third week straight and we didn’t win,” Logano said. “That part is frustrating.”
Logano finished second to Martin Truex Jr. on Saturday night at Richmond Raceway after running out of laps. It came a week after Logano gave up the lead to pit late at Bristol and finished third.
Logano passed Clint Bowyer for second on Saturday night with four laps to go but couldn’t make the run he needed to get by Truex.
“It’s kind of a double-edged sword,” said Logano, who won the second stage. “You go to the bottom, you can’t get enough drive to clear them. You are never going to pass them. Getting to the outside is pretty tough. We ran out of time. Needed a few more laps.”
Unlike the last time Logano was second to Truex (at Martinsville last fall), there was no contact on the last lap.
“I think he drove me as hard as he could without hitting me, which is what I always expect, that’s kind of how I’ve always raced him,” Truex said. “I don’t know if we’re cool, but I certainly have a lot of respect for Joey as a person and his accomplishments. I really appreciated the way he raced me tonight. I don’t know if he tried to hit me or not. Maybe he didn’t, maybe he did. I don’t know. I’m glad he didn’t. Hopefully, we can race clean for the rest of the year.”
Logano had an eventful race beyond the finish.
He lost the lead on pit road to Truex on Lap 247.
“We lost control at that point,” Logano said of the race.
He fell to third and had to fight his way back in what many drivers said were difficult conditions in the dirty air behind cars.
With less than 80 laps left Logano was held up by Brad Keselowski, leaving a frustrated Logano to yell on his radio about his teammate.
“I think we’ll talk about it,” Logano said. “We’ll be fine, we’re friends. You want to make sure one of our cars wins. That’s just usually the goal.
“We were better. It is what it is. We’ve raced each other hard for wins and we’ve always raced each other fine. I’m not complaining. He’s racing for his spot. I’m racing for my spot. It’s frustrating when you’re in the car and you know you’re better and you know you have a shot at winning and that’s the frustrating part. He’s racing. I’m racing. I’m a hard racer. He is too. That’s what you’re going to get.”
