Joey Logano’s ever-dwindling playoff hopes took a further hit yesterday with not one, but two pit road penalties in the closing laps of the Overton’s 400 at Pocono Raceway.
He ducked onto pit road to make his final stop with 36 laps to go. The call then came from Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race Director David Hoots that Logano had to serve a pass through for speeding on pit entry.
He came down two laps later to serve his pass through, locking up the brakes getting onto pit road. Logano’s team opted to change all four tires while he was serving his pass through, which is a no-no. As a result, he was issued a stop and go penalty for stopping to service his car while serving a penalty.
“My bad,” crew chief Todd Gordon said on the radio afterwards.
Logano rejoined the race in 27th, one lap down, which is where he finished.
This race has been the tale of his season since scoring his encumbered victory at Richmond Raceway. Logano, who finished outside the top-10 only once in the first quarter of the season, has only posted three top-10 finishes since his win at Richmond.
It also didn’t help that his performance was average at best, with a 17.7 average running position through the race.
He leaves Pocono trailing Matt Kenseth by 69 points for the 16th-place cutoff in the playoffs.
