What happened
Joey Logano returned to pit road with a loose left-front wheel during the green-flag pit cycle completed by lap 360 at Martinsville. Crew chief Paul Wolfe said the No. 22 Team Penske car had been running in the top three when the pit-road trouble began.
On a separate stop, the crew left a wedge wrench in the rear window. Wolfe said Logano had been in contention to win before the pit-service errors.
What it cost
Logano entered Martinsville 5th in the championship, 100 points behind Kyle Larson. The pit-road errors ended his title bid: he left mathematically eliminated, still 5th in the standings and 103 points behind Larson.
Logano ran 3rd before his green-flag stop; the extra stop for the loose wheel dropped him to 17th, a lap down, costing 14 positions. The race ran green for its final 230 laps, leaving no later restart to bunch the field while he tried to recover.
The pit-service errors left Logano 18th and two laps down at the finish. Logano said the team shared responsibility for losing just as it shared success.
What could have been done differently
The crew should have secured the wheel before releasing Logano, avoiding another trip down pit road under green to complete the service. It also should have held the car in its stall until the wedge wrench was removed from the rear window.