Team Penske issues statement regarding Joey Logano Talladega DQ, decides on appeal

Team Penske issued a statement after the disqualification of Joey Logano and the No. 22 team at Talladega on Sunday. The team said it would not appeal NASCAR’s decision despite the loose bolt on the spoiler was “not intentional.”

“The No. 22 Team Penske Ford Mustang was disqualified following post-race inspection at Talladega today,” Team Penske said. “One of the 18 bolts on the surface of the spoiler that connect to the base was found to be loose, and NASCAR penalized the team as a result.

“This was not intentional and happened throughout the course of the race event. Team Penske accepts the disqualification.”

Joey Logano and Ryan Preece were disqualified after post-race inspections at Talladega. Preece finished second and Logano finished fifth. But with the disqualifications, they fell to the bottom of the field (Preece at 38 and Logano at 39).

For Logano’s No. 22 Ford, NASCAR officials found it to be “in violation of Section 14.5.8.E, which covers spoiler braces that are used as superspeedway events, and Section 14.1.P under General Vehicle Assembly, which states, ‘All fasteners must be securely fastened at all times during an Event.'”

Logano has had a rough start to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. The three-time Cup Series champion has not won a race and has earned just one top-10 finish. But slow starts are nothing new for Logano as it happened last year. He didn’t win a race until June and went on to claim the Cup Series title.

“Well I mean the bottom line is that the goal never changes. The goal is to win the championship, whether you won last year or not,” Joey Logano told the FOX Sports broadcasting crew before the Bowman Gray race in February. “But the big thing is just fighting complacency and being OK with what happened.

“You’ve got to remember what you did last year will not be good enough to win this year. So just always constantly looking for improvement and keeping everybody on their game, right, because that’s over. As great as that moment was — and it’s fun to watch it, believe me, it’s really fun just to watch that — it’s over and we’ve got to do it all again. The scoreboards reset back to zero.”