Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano hit wall hard in big wreck late in Brickyard 400
Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano’s Brickyard 400 runs are over after the multi-time Cup Series champions were involved in the Lap 109 caution off the restart.
Going into Turn 1, Carson Hocevar appeared to make contact with Ryan Blaney, setting off a chain reaction. Blaney clipped the right corner of Johnson, who then ran into Logano. Both Johnson and Logano made contact with the outside wall and sustained heavy damage.
Johnson, the NASCAR Hall of Famer, was making just his sixth start of the season for Legacy Motor Club, the team he co-owns alongside Maury Gallagher. The 48-year-old came into Sunday’s race looking for a good run as a four-time Brickyard 400 winner.
“We just had a very solid performance,” Johnson told NBC Sports. “Drove from 33rd almost to the top-10 and unfortunately just got some aggression on that restart. I got right reared and around I went. But we’ll be back. So happy to see some Legacy Motor Club cars running up towards the front. John Hunter’s doing such a great job in the Family Dollar Tree vehicle. We’ll see how he finishes.”
Joey Logano frustrated as Brickyard 400 run comes to an end
Logano, meanwhile, will post his worst Brickyard 400 finish since a P33 result back in 2012. He had eight top 10s in 12 previous starts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“Tried to watch the replay, it seems like they were three-wide a couple rows behind me, and the wreck caught me unfortunately,” Logano said. “Looks like Hocevar sent it down the center. Just kind of stuffed it into the lane. Seems like something he’s done a lot recently. Unfortunately, it caught up to me. There’s a right rear on Jimmie into my left rear and sent our Shell/Pennzoil Mustang into the wall. It’s a bummer.
“You come here to Indy once a year and all you dream of is kissing the bricks and my team made me a really good racecar. We were the leader of our strategy and that’s all you can really hope for is to get to the lead of your strategy. We were gonna have a shorter pit stop, we were trying to gain some spots on the restart as a lot of guys were staying out trying to connect it. Could have a shorter stop than them and that was when we were gonna cycle back to the front hopefully. We never got to see it through.”
Blaney, his Team Penske teammate, was quite vocal about Hocevar’s involvement in the wreck.
“Where on God’s green earth did he think he was going? … I don’t understand how some of these guys process what they process. It’s shocking to me,” Blaney said, via Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic.