Joey Logano on NASCAR Texas win: You kick us down, we come back ten times harder

Joey Logano says he will “come back ten times harder” every time someone “kicks me down” after winning Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race in Texas.

Penske driver Logano sent his #22 Ford up the inside of the #71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet of Michael McDowell with four laps to run to take the lead in the Wurth 400.

McDowell crashed just minutes later in the race to prompt a caution, but the reigning champion held firm on the restart during overtime to beat Ross Chastain’s Trackhouse Chevrolet by 0.3s.

It was the first victory for Logano since he clinched his third Cup Series title at Phoenix last year and followed just a week after he was disqualified from Talladega for racing with a missing nut on his spoiler bracket.

In the post-race press conference, Logano said the result at Texas Motor Speedway showed his and Penske’s ability to bounce back from adversity.

“You start to wonder if you are ever going to win for these guys [sponsor AA Racing],” he said.

“They’ve been a great partner of Team Penske and myself for the last 14 or so years. Yeah, it’s been kind of heartbreaking being close quite a few times and never getting into victory lane.

“It was a special one to be able to click one-off for them and for the 22.

“After what happened last week to be able to rebound and come right back, it was a total 22 way of doing things.

He added: “There’s always a story next week, right? I told my wife last week before we left, I said, Watch, we’ll go win this one. It’s just how we do stuff.

“Any time you kick us down, I feel like we come back ten times harder, whatever that is in us. Definitely had a fast car today, and like I said, it’s nice to change the storyline.”

Pressed further on the topic, Logano said he had extra motivation to prove naysayers wrong after he was excluded from fifth place at Talladega for a technical infringement.

“I think any time somebody says something about you, you can use it as motivation, whether it’s good or bad,” he said. “When you have some negative comments and things like that, you have a chip on your shoulder. Well, I’ll prove you wrong. You want that story. It’s cool, right?

“I don’t feel like I put more effort in one week over the others, but I think subconsciously there’s something that happens. Something happens in the playoffs. There’s something that happens when someone says something to you, right? Everyone in here can probably relate to that at some point.”

Logano’s first victory of the season elevates him to ninth in the championship on 288 points, although he still trails standings leader William Byron (Hendrick Motorsports) by 133 points.