NASCAR Cup Nashville: Logano stretches fuel to win in five overtimes

Logano inherited the lead after the third overtime when Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. were both forced to pit for fuel. He appeared to be in position to claim the win in the fourth overtime, but a caution came out just before Logano took the white flag.

Knowing if they pit he would lose, Logano and his crew chief, Paul Wolfe, decided to remain out and got a good restart to start the fifth overtime.

With the fuel light on in his No. 22 Ford on during the final lap, Logano was able to fend off a challenge from Tyler Reddick and edged Zane Smith by 0.068 seconds to claim his win of the season and 33rd of his career.

Joey Logano, Team Penske, Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang in victory lane

Photo by: Danny Hansen / NKP / Motorsport Images

With Logano’s win, all three Penske drivers have now qualified for the playoffs with all three of their wins coming in the last five races.

Reddick finished third, Ryan Preece was fourth and Chris Buescher ended up fifth.

Completing the top 10 were Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson, Daniel Hemric and Noah Gragson.

Hamlin appeared headed to victory after passing Chastain with seven laps of the original 300 laps remaining when Austin Cindric spun out to bring out a caution and send the race into the first of five overtimes.

Stage 1

Christopher Bell maintained his lead through a long round of green flag pit stops and held off Hamlin by 0.689 seconds to take the Stage 1 win. Reddick was third, Larson fourth and Brad Keselowski ended up fifth.

Stage 2

After the race resumed from a long delay, Bell held off Reddick by 0.596 seconds to take the Stage 2 win, his series-leading ninth of the 2024 season. Larson was third, Hamlin fourth and Keselowski rounded out the top five.

NASCAR red flagged the race after lap 136 when lightning and rain moved into the area of the track. The race resumed after a nearly one hour, 20-minute delay.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, the lead lap cars all pitted with Bell first off pit road. Bell led Hamlin and Reddick when the race resumed with 108 laps remaining.

Chase Elliott spun out on his own coming off Turn 2 and slid sideways through the infield grass on lap 219, which brought out the eighth caution of the race.

The caution – which came close to the window to make it to end of the race on fuel – sent teams into varying strategies on pit road. Chastain was first off pit that elected to pit thanks to a two-tire stop.

Blaney remained on the track and inherited the lead and led the way on the restart with 75 laps remaining.

Bell, who had led the most so far in the race, spun on his own off Turn 2 and slammed the wall on lap 228, which brought an early end to his race.

A handful of drivers pit but Blaney remained on the track and in the lead when the race resumed with 66 laps to go.

Keselowski spun on his own on lap 243 and shortly after the caution came out, Carson Hocevar spun out Harrison Burton as the latter was slowing for the caution.

Chastain powered around Blaney on the restart with 52 laps remaining to take the lead for the first time,

With 30 laps to go, Chastain emerged with a nearly three-second lead over Hamlin as both Blaney and Wallace were forced to pit for fuel.

Hamlin closed to within the back of Chastain’s rear bumper with 10 laps remaining but got loose and lost a lot of ground. He finally made his way around Chastain with seven of the originally scheduled 300 laps to go.