Joey Logano Hits Stride as Sprint Cup Chase Nears
Joey Logano is hot at the right time.
Technically, the right time is the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the 10-race stretch that begins on Sept. 20, but it's not a bad idea to hit the Chase at top speed. Timing and managing somehow to avoid mistakes determine how it unfolds. Only two races are left in the regular season. It's time to go.
| Tracks | Indianapolis | Pocono | Watkins Glen | Michigan | Bristol |
| Started | 2 | 3 | 16 | 10 | 5 |
| Finished | 2 | 20 | 1 | 7 | 1 |
| Laps Led | 28 | 97 | 1 | 0 | 176 |
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"Wow," his crew chief, Todd Gordon, said after Logano won the Irwin Tools Night Race for the second year in a row. "He performed flawlessly. Best race he's ever driven? I don't know. The Daytona 500 was pretty phenomenal, but it was a typical Joey Logano performance."
Logano, a veteran of 243 Sprint Cup races at age 25, worked the nettlesome Bristol Motor Speedway traffic expertly and kept the reigning champion, Kevin Harvick, at bay while leading the final 64 laps around the tight, high-banked .533-mile oval.
Bristol can be a chamber of horrors. So, too, can be the Chase.
Harvick, by the way, has finished second two weeks in a row and eight times since winning the season's second and third races.
"He was just one step ahead of me in traffic," Harvick, who obviously knows the feeling, said.
"Obviously, you want to win to win races, but we're in position and feel like we can get that momentum swing at any point, if it just starts going our way."
The season to date means little once the Chase begins. Logano's victory was his third of the season and second in a span of three weeks.
There's Logano, third last year.
There's Harvick, the defender.
There's Jimmie Johnson, winner of six Sprint Cups.
There are 16 racers at the the beginning of the Chase and four at the end. One wrong move can negate a dozen perfect ones.
Then there is the collective juggernaut known as Joe Gibbs Racing, where Logano spent four years and was discarded, moving then to drive for Roger Penske and produce nine victories in the last three seasons.
Only three drivers have won in the season's past seven weeks. Kyle Busch has won three and Matt Kenseth two. They compete for JGR, as do Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards, who will also take up the Chase.
Everyone's happy, for now, anyway, in this ubiquitous rivalry. Gibbs doesn't miss Logano. Logano doesn't miss Gibbs. It worked out grandly. Everyone is gracious, at least until the Chase begins in Joliet, Illinois.
"You know, obviously, JGR is a great team," Logano said in the winner's media conference. "They're kicking butt out there right now.
"I've been fortunate to drive for two great race teams. The difference now is that I'm ready to go racing and race for championships. Back then I wasn't, you know, but I've definitely learned a lot. I wouldn't trade those years for a million bucks."
Lest anyone try to narrow this field of 16, please. The complicated narrowing from 16 to eight to four will be discussed at length in the near future, but suffice it to point out that, even if Logano were to win nine races in a row, he would still enter the final race, at Homestead-Miami (Florida) Speedway on Nov. 22, tied with three others.
He might also have an equal shot if he wins none of the first nine Chase races. The runner-up to Harvick last year, Ryan Newman, proved it could be done.
In other words, it's a bit absurd to cast anyone as the favorite, but so-called experts will inevitably do so, and the best bets for advancing into the second round are those who open the Chase in peak form.
Logano seems to be the prime Ford contender; teammate and 2012 champion Brad Keselowski will be there, too, but has lagged behind Logano recently, and Logano was a finalist last year, trailing Harvick, Newman and Hamlin.
"It's exciting to grasp what his (Logano's) potential could be," Gordon said. "He is 25 years old, but he's much mature beyond that age. Got put in a Cup car at 18, so he's 25 years old now with seven years' experience of understanding what it takes to be successful, and made the Chase now all three years at Penske.
"And executing. I think you saw in the Nationwide (now Xfinity Series) performances before he got here that he was a closer. He's so mature beyond his years at 25, I'm just thrilled what the future brings for us." Jeff Gluck of USA Today gave his take on the race:
Twenty-five? Yeah, as of May 24. Sprint Cup races? The Bristol race was his 243rd. Brad Keselowski, 31, has 22 fewer.
"You know, I try not to get fired up inside the race car," Logano said, "because I see the bigger picture. I just want to get through it. We'll be fine.
"We had a little hiccup on one pit stop tonight. No big deal. Everything is OK. We'll get through it."
Check back in November. Let's see where the Chase takes him.
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All quotes are taken from NASCAR media, team and manufacturer sources unless otherwise noted.
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