Joey Logano recalls the moment that cost him 2014 NASCAR title

Joey Logano says he still vividly remembers the moment he lost a likely NASCAR Cup Series title in the 2014 season finale at Homestead-Miami.

The Team Penske driver had made it into the Championship 4 and was chasing his first Cup crown when a late pitstop mishap derailed his hopes with under 20 laps remaining.

As the 11th caution period ended, Logano entered the pits to bolt on fresh tyres for a final charge.

But a problem with the jack caused the car to drop back to the ground before the left-hand side tyres were fitted. The Penske crew had to lift the car back up, costing him crucial time.

Logano, then just 24, could only recover to 16th at the finish and ultimately ended up fourth in the final standings.

He finally lifted his first championship trophy in 2018 and is now a three-time Cup Series champion. But more than a decade later, the sting of that defeat still lingers.

”This is a really bad scenario here,” the Connecticut native told the Real Mechanic Stuff. “I remember this moment like it was yesterday.

“We are racing for the championship. It’s a championship race.

“We come down pit road in contention to win the race right there. Final pit stop. Right sides go up, change tyres, everything’s good.

“Come the left side, get the jack under the jack post, but it didn’t really get underneath the jack post like it needed to, they needed to get it up.

“So, it got only on the edge. So, when he jacked it up, it came up. They pulled the tyres off and it was just enough that it fell down with no tyres on it.

“We watched our championship go away at that moment. Went all the way to [the] back [of the pack]. And it was like 20 laps to go.

He added: “It stung for everybody, right? Not just the driver and crew chief but the pit crew.

“It was a hard moment post race. ‘Okay, we still got to move forward’.

“It’s the team sport aspect of nascar, a lot of people don’t think about. They just see the driver out there. ‘Oh, it’s the only guy doing something’. But there are so many people involved.

“Yeah it happened and we had to go back and review it, figure out what happened and then move forward.

“That’s all you can do at that point. The damage is done. It sucks. It hurts. You gave up a chance to win the championship. You never know if you will ever have another chance. Could be sitting here with four championships instead of three.”