Why are Joey Logano and Chris Buescher forced to start at the rear in the Homestead playoff race?

After a surprising victory in Las Vegas, Joey Logano has faced a setback ahead of the second Round of 8 race. The Team Penske driver, along with Chris Buescher, is set to start at the rear of the field at the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway this Sunday.

In a post on X, Fox Sports journalist Bob Pockrass reported that the two-time Cup Series champion Logano and RFK Racing driver Buescher faced steering system issues. As a result, both the Cup Series drivers will drop to the rear as it's not an approved adjustment to fix the power steering issue.

"Steering issues for Logano and Buescher will result in changing out the system for Logano and the rack for Buescher. Both will drop to the rear Sunday," Bob Pockrass wrote on X.

Moreover, the #22 driver Logano radioed the power steering issue while logging laps in the practice sessions.

"I wish I knew; we’d be able to fix it," Joey Logano said via Racer.com. "It just seemed like it was locking up as it was going, so we’re probably going to have to take a look at that after qualifying. It’s not one of the approved changes, I don’t believe, so we’ll have to figure that one out later. But we can still qualify for a pit stall, at least."

"I think our Hunt Brothers Mustang is pretty good on the long run. That’s kind of where we’ve been: good on the long run, not so great on the short run. So, we’ll try to give the short run some love for tomorrow and get the power steering working as well," Logano added.

Here's a sneak peek inside the Penske driver Logano's garage by NBC Sports reporter Dustin Long:

"#NASCAR … Joey Logano’s crew changing out the steering system. He will start at the rear of the field Sunday."

Interestingly, the 34-year-old booked his berth in the Championship 4 by securing the victory at the South Point 400 race last weekend.

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"You can knock a lot of that now": Joey Logano on having a safe spot after securing Championship 4 berth

With a win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last weekend, Joey Logano has booked his spot in the final race at Phoenix Raceway as he looks to win his third championship title.

Addressing the benefits of winning the early seat in the Championship 4 race, the Connecticut native said (via Speedwaydigest):

"If you lock yourself into Martinsville, you got a couple days before that car’s gotta be on the road headed out west. So you don’t have much time to really change much of the setup or whatever things you’re wanting to do, right? You can practice, obviously, but you are just massaging the little things, you don’t have a whole lot of time there."

"All those distractions that you’ll have on championship weekend, you can knock a lot of that out now, which to me, is something," Joey Logano added.

While Penske's #22 is in a back seat for now, his teammate Ryan Blaney is in the playoff bubble. The #12 driver is 47 points below the cutl-ine and is placed seventh in the playoff picture.