Just a few months back, Joey Logano was 20th in the standings. Just a small handfull of top 10 finishes and Logano goes winless for over a year until North Wilkesboro. Now three races into the Chase and Joey has 3 wins, multiple Stage wins and has earned more points than any other driver. Logano is now 3rd in the standings just 16 points outside of the Chase lead.

Logano started off his Bristol night by winning the first Stage for 10 points. Stage 2 Joey would earn 8 more points. But in the end, the three time NASCAR Cup Series Champion would keep the leaders within reach for the whole third stage. Darlington was 9th, Gateway was 3rd, but Joey Logano would lead 93 laps at Bristol. One last, late race restart, Joey would put his infamous red and yellow No. 22 Ford Mustang Dark Horse right where it needed to be.

With just a handful of laps left, Logano would get a great run out of 1 and 2, getting alongside the front three cars. Leaders Ty Gibbs, Kyle Larson, and Carson Hocevar would do battle one last time heading into 3 and 4 before hard racing and contact between Hocevar and Gibbs would send the pair up the track. Logano would dive to the bottom of the track and get the entire top 3 in one single corner and take off for the last 7 laps of the race.

Logano’s win is the 3rd of the season, the 13th of the NEXT GEN Era and 40th of his career. 40 puts him in some majorly elite company. He is now tied as one of the 20 winningest drivers in series history. His win is his 38th at Team Penske, making him the winningest driver in the team’s history. Joey is tied with the very NASCAR legend who once dubbed him “Sliced Bread”, Mr. Mark Martin.

16 points outside of the Chase lead from the driver most fans and even industry experts wrote off back in July. But never forget, it is an even year.

Image sourced via Team Penske X