Joey Logano was in Cosmo Kramer mode in Nashville on Sunday, stretching his gas tank to new heights to secure the win during the Ally 400, and Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick are trying to figure out how he did it.
First, Hamlin had an interesting theory as to how he ran out of gas, but Logano was able to stretch his fuel as far as he did, which he shared with the NASCAR world during the latest episode of his ActionsDetrimental podcast.
“I was surprised not to run out sooner. Our estimates, I should’ve ran out long before I did. But no one made it as far as the No. 22. That was crazy, as far as he went. What was it, 110 total laps? That’s a lot. I think there’s a lot of factors that play into that,” Hamlin started. “Certainly, I think that not every fuel cell is exactly the same, so you’re going to have a little bit of variance there. … It’s just like every part on the car that you buy. While they’re the same, they’re not the same. … The difference between him finishing the race and not, I mean, I guess he ran out when he was doing his celebration, but that’s not much fuel. So if you get .2 gallons more out of your tank, you can go somewhere with it. But there’s a lot of factors into it, and I saw a lot of questions like, ‘How was it possible that he didn’t run out of gas?’ I think there’s a few things that go into that.
“Track position matters. When you’re running, kind of as poorly as they were, he was not in the gas as much as the leaders. So he’s having to lift — your lift-point into the corner is shallower, so you gain that. You can’t get back in the gas as quick, because you’re in traffic, so more than likely, he was getting better fuel mileage than what all the leaders were that were in open-track for the bulk of that run. And horsepower in the engines play a role in that as well. If you look at the cars that kind of ran out first, it was the Chevys, then it was the Toyotas, then the Fords were the last to run out. So when you have more horsepower, you typically run out of gas quicker, because you use more fuel. So those are some of the things, and while it looks like a big number, and it was a big number that they made, he had a lot of benefits, and this is one of the few benefits of running slow, over the course of that last run.”
Evidently, Hamlin believes running near the middle of the field for most of the final stage actually helped Logano, which feels like a backhanded compliment in itself, but the No. 22 is the one who secured the trophy in the end, so it doesn’t matter much to him.
Continuing, Reddick actually had a shot at Logano during the final laps of the fifth overtime, and the 23XI Racing wheelman actually told Hamlin that he thought the No. 22 was going to run out before the end of the race.
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t know if I was expecting it, but just based off the information we had, by the team’s calculations, they thought the No. 22 was going to run out before the No. 14,” Reddick explained. “So, I wasn’t going to give up a row, to restart behind one car or the other, based off those numbers. It just worked out to where you know, I ended up, by the numbers, being close to the front on the outside. So, I was ready for it, I guess. I was trying to plan accordingly.
“May have been a mistake on my part, but I was kind of thinking too, he’d be a little less apt to run a larger distance around the track too, because of that.”
Nevertheless, the Ally 400 was certainly memorable, and Joey Logano stole a win in the Music City. Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick and a host of other drivers may still be shocked, but the No. 22’s gas tank was the real MVP in Nashville.
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