While Denny Hamlin took the next step towards a possible first NASCAR Cup Series title on Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, defending series champion Joey Logano saw his hopes of a second consecutive title go away.
Logano and Kevin Harvick were both eliminated from title contention as both former NASCAR champions failed to advance out of the first round. Logano became the first reigning champion eliminated in the first round when he crashed early in the third stage and finished 34th.
He was watching as a spectator as former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Hamlin celebrated.
Logano was eliminated just after the halfway point when he drove the No. 22 Ford to the garage with broken parts that were likely catastrophic to his season. The two-time champion was 12th and on the bubble of elimination when he was collected in the crash.
Logano's car was damaged after he ran into Corey LaJoie, who was running 12th when LaJoie spun into Logano's path. Logano took his car to pit road, but once it was determined his damage needed to be addressed in the garage, Logano's night was over.
“We just we're fast enough. You can't go down a lap down, you're at the back at Bristol on a restart and they wreck in front of you, and you get caught up,” Logano said. “It's our own fault. We didn't go fast enough in our Mustang.”
Harvick, who is retiring at the end of the season, also was eliminated after finishing five laps down in 29th. Harvick was the first driver in 2014 to win the championship in this elimination format.
“We’ve been like that all year, hit or miss, and tonight we just missed by a mile," Harvick said. “I’ve had some good days, some bad days, but that’s definitely the worst day with fenders. I didn’t really have many expectations, as up and down as the year has been. It is what it is, that’s probably what we deserved.”
Also eliminated were Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Michael McDowell, despite finishing sixth. Three Ford teams were eliminated, and Stenhouse drives a Chevrolet.
“It wasn’t enough. We were in a must-win situation,” McDowell said. “This is a learning experience. We’ll learn from this, get ready for next year.”
NASCAR's first playoff elimination race was paused by rain for nearly 15 minutes at the start of the second stage.
SMITH TO SPIRE
Two new Cup drivers were announced at Bristol this weekend, with Kaulig Racing first promoting Daniel Hemric into one of its two seats next year. Trackhouse Racing then said it has signed Truck Series champion Zane Smith to a multi-year contract and will loan him to Spire Motorsports in 2024.
Trackhouse eventually plans to run three full-time cars, but isn't ready to do so next season. Spire will put Smith in a third car and bought the charter needed to do so from Live Fast Motorsports.
Smith is trying to win a second consecutive Truck Series title before his move to NASCAR's top series. He'll be teammates at Spire with Corey LaJoie, who this summer signed an extension with Spire, but the rest of the lineup and Smith's number is still to be determined. Spire fields two cars right now with LaJoie and Ty Dillon.
UP NEXT
NASCAR opens the second round of the playoffs next Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, which has only one Cup race this year for the first time since 2004. Tyler Reddick won the race a year ago driving for Richard Childress Racing.
