Austin Cindric disappointed after teammate Joey Logano’s restart chaos leads to violent Phoenix crash

Races and championships, Joey Logano has won both at Phoenix Raceway. But on Sunday at the 1.022-mile, low-banked tri-oval, the Mustang maestro showed up on the wrong side of fate.

With 100 laps to go in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix, Logano made contact with Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain on a restart, which triggered a multi-car pileup on Lap 217, collecting the likes of Anthony Alfredo, Bubba Wallace, and Austin Cindric.

After being checked and released from the infield care center, Cindric shared his thoughts on the wreck that ended his day.

“The restarts get crazy here, and I’m not really sure what happened other than just cars jumping right across the race track,” Cindric said. “I’m not sure I’ve ever jumped head-on into a wall, but that changed today. It’s just a shame.”

“We got points in both stages and were in desperate need of a race finish without a crash, and we did not get that today,” he continued. “It’s a shame because I felt like we did all the right things throughout the afternoon, so that’s racing.”

Alfredo, who was filling in for Alex Bowman, was also out of the race. Only Wallace and Logano were able to stay out on the track after the crash. Logano was involved in another incident on Lap 254, ultimately settling for a P31 finish. Wallace, on the other hand, managed to salvage a P6 finish, marking his third top-10 in four starts this season.

Logano’s teammate and former Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney won the 312-lap event, followed by Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, and Denny Hamlin inside the top five. Rounding off the remainder of the top-10 were Wallace, William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Michael McDowell, and Erik Jones.

“It just really hurts” – Joey Logano opens up following violent restart crash at Phoenix

Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano was all set on four fresh tires for a restart, with under 100 laps left in the race. The Penske icon had led 73 laps by then, and as the pole sitter, he knew he had a car fast enough to win the race.

But things didn’t play out as planned. After the field went green, Joey Logano bumped Chastain at the dogleg right past the start-finish line. Chastain went spinning across the track, collecting four others. Well, he didn’t exit the track, but was more than 25 laps down.

“I’m not really 100% sure what happened there,” Joey Logano said of his race-ending wreck. ” I guess I didn’t realize we were three-wide, but it still seemed like there was some room there. Just ran out of space into (Turn) 1.”

“I didn’t mean to get Ross there on the restart,” he added. “I had a run and he kind of went down to the bottom with me and gosh, it’s been a rough day. We had a good Mustang, probably a top three or four car, and it just really hurts to be here.”

Joey Logano is still in the hunt for his first win of the 2026 season, and so is Chastain. Next up for the drivers is the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 15. Fans can watch it live on FS1, starting at 4 pm ET.