Joey Logano says he still vividly remembers the moment he lost his NASCAR Cup Series title in the 2014 season finale at Homestead Miami.
Team Pensuke Driver arrived at Championship 4 and was chasing the crown of his first cup as the late pit stop calamity derailed his hopes by under 20 laps.
Once the 11th notice period ended, the Rogano went into the pits to bolt the fresh tires for a final charging.
However, due to a jack issue, the car returned to the ground before the left tire was installed. Penske’s crew had to lift the car, which took him quite a while.
The 24-year-old Logano only recovered to 16th in the finish and ended up fourth in the final place.
He finally lifted his first Championship Trophy in 2018 and is now a three-time Cup Series champion. But more than a decade later, the stab wounds of that defeat still remain.
“This is a really bad scenario here,” the Connecticut native told the real mechanic. “I remember this moment like yesterday.
“We race for the championship, it is a championship race.
“We’re off the pit road in our competition and we win the race there. The final pit stop. The right side goes up, the tires change, everything is good.
“Come on the left and get the jack under Jack’s post, but it wasn’t really under the jack post as needed.
“So it was only on the edge. So when he jacked it, it went up. They pulled the tires away and it was enough to just fall without the tires.
“We saw the championship disappear at that moment. We went back (of the pack) and (of the pack) and it was like 20 laps.
He added:
“It was a tough post-race moment. ‘Well, we still had to move forward.’
“It’s the NASCAR side of team sports and a lot of people don’t think about it. They just look at the driver there. “Yeah, that’s the only guy doing something.” But many people are involved.
“Yeah, it happened, and we had to go back and review it, figure out what happened, and then move on.
“It’s all you can do at that point. It’s damage. It’s terrible. It hurts. I gave up on my chance to win the championship. I don’t know if there’s another chance.