Joey Logano and Kyle Busch relive Gateway's chaotic Cup Series debut

Joey Logano and Kyle Busch battled throughout the final two laps during NASCAR’s trip to Gateway in 2022, and they relived it ahead of the sport’s return to the track.

It was Logano who came out on top during last season’s iteration, much to the dismay of Busch. As the Penske wheelman recollected his win, he recalled just how much fun it was to find Victory Lane at Gateway.

“This race was a lot of fun, especially towards the end here,” Logano stated. “Kyle and I kind of crossed each other back and forth. This restart, I had a pretty decent launch here, and a good push behind me, where I got ahead of Kyle into the corner, and I thought, ‘I need to slide in here. I need to get to the top lane, the preferred lane.’ So I released the brake, slid up. He saw us coming, he crossed me. Then we came off the corner, like roles reversed, right. Now he’s door-banging me. I just slid him, and he’s got the advantage into the corner.

“I knew he was going to do the same thing back, so he tried to slide me. He slid me a little too much and I was ready for it, and then I was able get off four as the leader and take the white flag. At that point I had a big enough lead that he couldn’t get back to me. So pretty cool to do the crossover two times like that, pretty cool.”

It’s evident the weekend as a whole meant a lot to Logano, as fans came out in droves for NASCAR’s return to Gateway, and the two-time Cup Series champion gave them a finish to remember.

“It was cool. I enjoyed it a lot,” Logano added, regarding NASCAR’s return to Gateway. “It was a fun weekend from start to finish, to actually have practice and work on your car a little bit, and see the amount of fans there that really embraced having Cup racing at their track. I thought that was really special.

“It was great that it ended up being a good race. It would stink if it was all that hype and all those good things and then it didn’t end up being a good race. But it ended up being good. Paul was excited. Got a fist pump out of him.”

Can Joey Logano repeat at Gateway, or will Kyle Busch find the victory that eluded him at Gateway in 2022? Regardless, it should be another great race at the track this weekend.