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By Ronald Young
Photo: Michael Jaworecki/Myracenews
Joey Logano left little doubt that he is back after winning his second race in the last four at Richmond on Saturday night. The Connecticut native took the lead from Christopher Bell with twenty-four laps to go and held off a late charge from Chase Briscoe to win the Cook Out 400.
The turnaround for Logano and the Penske camp as a whole is quite impressive. During the first 20 races this year Logano scored two top fives and had an average finish of 17. During the last four races he has three top fives and two wins.
“We’ve been able to ride some momentum here right now,” Logano said after his victory at Richmond. It’s been a nice turnaround. We’ve been able to switch our goals from making the Chase to winning the championship.
“I think it all kind of goes back to a little bit before Chicago probably, we started to see some speed there. Wilkesboro we expected to be good. Indy was strong,” Logano added. “I look at the last month and a half, we’ve been capable of winning all of ’em. It’s nice to have been able to run up front and get stage points. That’s really the telltale sign in speed of a race car, is how many stage points have you scored. Been able to capitalize a lot on that here recently.”
“Proud of everyone sticking together. Those are the times it’s hard to do that. Times you see teams break. I’d say it doesn’t take much longer running the way we were running until something probably was going to break”.
“It’s nice to see we’ve been able to make quite the recovery and, like I said, change our goals at this point of the season to where we have a legit shot at winning this championship now. We’re getting hot at the right time. It will be a fun chase till the end.”
Logano has been quick to praise his crew for working hard and staying focused during the difficult times earlier in the year. It should be noted that the other Penske drivers have shown better speed during the summer months. Ryan Blaney won the pole at Richmond and led the entire first stage before fading late and Austin Cindric recorded a career best finish of third.
So Joey, tell us what is the secret?
“I think that on top of finding a couple things setup-wise that made sense to where we can get the car driving the way I want, it took some time to get to that point to where I can get that feel that I want in a car. It’s just harder these days. We talk about it all the time. Without practice, being able to sling springs and test, not being able to do all those things, it’s hard to figure out what’s magic button is to fix it.”
“Next week in Loudon, I feel at home in that racetrack, that’s home. Always a special one for me. Hopefully we can bring this amount of speed again and execute like this again.”
Logano currently sits ninth in points after hovering below the chase cutline earlier in the year. In the last six races he has advanced eleven spots.
“ I wish we were a little bit closer to the front right now. I said before the season started, you got to be top 10 – I said 7 – but I think you can probably recover more than I thought. I think in the top 10 you can make a serious run at winning this thing.”
Logano says with the ‘chase’, racing is different on the track than in past seasons’ because bonzai moves for race wins are no longer rewarded with playoff advancement.
“You’re not caution to the wind like you used to be, all or nothing, win the race, get the Playoff points, all that, or move into the next round, locking yourself in. All that’s gone, right? It’s about just consistency and points, being good every weekend. That’s what this format is now.”
Speed and some luck wins championships too. If Logano is able to maintain both till November he will be a serious contender to hoist the championship trophy at Homestead.
