by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief

Joey Logano picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 at the Darlington Raceway when his #15 Panini Ford lost the engine after 12 of 150 laps.

The finish came in Logano’s 179th series start. In the XFINITY Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 13th for the #15, the 173rd for Ford, and the 281st from an engine. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 52nd for the #15, the 1,047th for Ford, and the 1,145th from engine issues.

Coming into this season, Logano hadn’t made a XFINITY Series start since 2019, and the years since have seen Penske Racing scale back their XFINITY program. Of his 30 series wins, 12 came with Penske after his departure from Joe Gibbs Racing heading into 2013. His lone win at Darlington came in his final season with JGR, where he led just four laps to beat a dominant teammate in Denny Hamlin. And in this, his 13th season with at least one XFINITY start, he’d yet to finish last once.

For Saturday, Logano would be one of five full-time Cup Series drivers entered in the race. But this time, he’d drive for AM Racing. It was Logano who, at the Chicago Street Course, was first brought on by AM to evaluate the team’s equipment after Hailie Deegan’s struggles through the first 17 races of the 2024 season. The result was an 8th-place finish, followed by Deegan announcing she had parted ways with the team. Josh Berry, Lawless Alan, and Gus Dean have since driven the car, yielding a first-lap last-place finish by Berry at Indianapolis and no finishes better than 27th. This led to Logano’s return, and with former Gray Gaulding sponsor Panini trading cards.

On the Cup side at Darlington, Logano ran 30th in practice and ranked just 12th in Qualifying Round 1B with a lap of 29.563 seconds (166.343mph), securing him the 23rd spot on the grid for Sunday’s Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington. In XFINITY, Logano began the weekend 9th-fastest in practice, then qualified 18th with a lap of 30.466 seconds (161.413mph). With 39 drivers entered for Saturday’s 38-car field, the lone DNQ was Dawson Cram, a post-entry in Mike Harmon Racing’s #74 Magnum Contracting, Inc. Chevrolet.

Securing the 38th and final starting spot was Greg Van Alst in SS-Green Light Racing’s #07 CB Fabricating Chevrolet. He’d be joined in the back by four drivers who incurred tail-end penalties for unapproved adjustments: 22nd-place Matt DiBenedetto in the #38 ReMA Ford, 23rd-place starter Jesse Love in the #2 Whelen Chevrolet, 33rd-place Leland Honeyman in the #42 Randco Industries Chevrolet, and 37th-place Chad Finchum in the #14 Ted Russell Ford of Knoxville Ford. When the command to fire engines was given, Finchum also needed a push from an equipment truck to get going.

Shortly after the green flag, 9th-place qualifier Parker Retzlaff suddenly lost power when he shifted into fourth gear in Turns 1 and 2, his #31 Capital City Towing Chevrolet stacking up the cars on the inside line. Retzlaff managed to pull to the apron on the backstretch, then made it to pit road. But since he was pitted at Stall 9, which was on the Turn 1 side, his car ended up stopping just short of the starting line, around the NBC Pit Box at Stall 24. This occurred on Lap 4, when NASCAR threw the caution to get him a push. Immediately in last place and several laps down, Retzlaff waited in his car on Lap 7 as the crew looked under the hood. He could re-fire the engine, but it kept losing power, signaling perhaps a fuel pump issue.

Moments after the race restarted on Lap 9, Blaine Perkins joined Retzlaff on pit road for an unscheduled stop on his #29 AutoParkIt.com Ford, dropping him to 37th by Lap 10. Two laps later, Logano was running around the 25th spot when smoke started puffing from his right-side pipes in Turns 1 and 2. He slowed and made it to pit road, where the crew immediately told him to “take it to the truck.” Logano pulled behind the wall. First Perkins, then Retzlaff returned to the track, approximately 17 and 25 laps down, respectively. Perkins cleared Logano by Lap 31, and Retzlaff climbed out of last place around Lap 38. The only other driver Retzlaff passed was Kyle Weatherman, whose #91 Mainline Fleet Maintenance Chevrolet twice bounced off the wall, destroying the right-front of his car. Perkins also climbed past Riley Herbst, who shortly after Logano went behind the wall cut down a right-front tire and bounced off the wall in his #98 Monster Energy Ford. This put Perkins in 34th with Herbst taking 35th.

LASTCAR STATISTICS

*This marked the first last-place finish for the #15 in a XFINITY Series race at Darlington.

THE BOTTOM FIVE

38) #15-Joey Logano / 12 laps / engine

37) #91-Kyle Weatherman / 54 laps / crash

36) #31-Parker Retzlafff / 125 laps / running

35) #98-Riley Herbst / 129 laps / running

34) #29-Blaine Perkins / 133 laps / running

2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Joey Gase Motorsports (4)

2nd) JR Motorsports (3)

3rd) AM Racing, DGM Racing, Jordan Anderson Racing, SS-Green Light Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing (2)

4th) Alpha Prime Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, Kaulig Racing, Mike Harmon Racing, Motorsports Business Management, RSS Racing (1)

2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

1st) Chevrolet (14)

2nd) Ford (6)

3rd) Toyota (3)

2024 LASTCAR XFINITY SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP