Logano hopes win at North Wilkesboro propels him back into hunt for fourth Cup Series championship

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. (AP) — It was always in the back of Joey Logano's mind: the streak. The three-time season champion had won at least one race in each of his previous 14 seasons racing in the NASCAR Cup Series entering this past weekend, the longest such streak among active drivers and just five behind the late Kyle Busch's record of 19. He desperately wanted it to continue. But as the weeks passed and the races came and went, Logano and the Team Penske No. 22 Ford team found themselves in search of speed — and their first victory of the 2026 season. Twenty races, no wins. Logano said doubt was beginning to creep in, as he found himself outside the cutline in the Chase for the Championship. (Only 16 drivers qualify for the playoffs, and he was 17th.) As for winning a race? Well ... "You start to wonder, am I going to have a chance this year to capitalize and (win) one?" Logano said. Logano unstoppable at NWS It turns out all Logano needed to regain his swagger was a trip to what he calls his "best track." Logano dominated the field Sunday night to extend his streak to 15 straight seasons with a win at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where he destroyed the competition in the All-Star race two years ago. It ended a brutal drought of 45 starts without a win. He was so unstoppable at the 0.625-mile track that all second-place finisher Denny Hamlin could do following the race was dab up Logano and congratulate him for masterfully navigating his way through lapped traffic. Logano led 323 of 450 laps. "It's wildly impressive what he did," Hamlin said. Logano won every restart and simply pulled away from the pack, sometimes leading by more than five seconds. Hamlin offered a challenge late in the race, but the Cup points leader could never run Logano down. Logano: It's been a tough year Logano acknowledged it's been a tough year. "Any time you kind of lack in speed, you start to question a lot of things around you, what the process is, what we're doing, (even) yourself," Logano said. "All those things come to mind on why there's not speed." But he has been around the pits long enough to know that stock car racing has its ebbs and flows given the changes to the cars and to the rules. Sometimes it feels like you're in a rocket ship and can't lose; other times you're stuck in the mud and can't buy a checkered flag. This year — and for that matter, most of last year — it felt more like quicksand. But Logano said his team never panicked and focused on finding a solution to its speed problem. The strategy at North Wilkesboro: Don't screw up Logano was thrilled when NASCAR announced last year that North Wilkesboro would be added as a points race for first time in 30 years. And why not? Nobody runs better here than him. His crew seems to have mastered how to the set up the car through plenty of testing at the track, making things easier for him as a driver. "I mean, when you have a car that fast, you kind of just make sure you don't screw it up, right?" Logano said. "Don't do anything dumb on pit road. Restarts, a little more conservative." Where does Logano go from here? Now safely inside the playoff cutline, Logano hopes Sunday's win will serve as a springboard with five races left before the playoffs. "The job's not done," Logano said. "We still want to win the championship. We got some great tracks coming up ahead of us, so there's definitely a lot of confidence in that. That's definitely real, that we feel like we can capitalize on it. We capitalized on it today." Logano isn't one to spend much time looking in the rearview mirror, reflecting on the trophies he's won. His focus is always on the next race. "You just keep grinding. I can't say I've ever felt like, because of the things I did in the past, it's going to guarantee success in the future," Logano said. "I don't think that's the right way to look at it." Logano's crew chief: Goal is to improve on 1 1/2-mile ovals Crew chief Paul Wolfe knows the team's strength is short-track racing, and that's where Logano currently feels most comfortable in the No. 22. Two of the next five races are at short tracks, so that's a bonus. But in order to compete for a fourth championship, Wolfe acknowledged, he needs to figure out how to pick up speed at the mile-and-a-half ovals. "We still have a lot of work to do to get the other style racetracks where they need to be, the ones we've obviously struggled on this year," Wolfe said. "I think the first thing we need to do is make sure we execute on these weekends here leading up to the end of the regular season and score those points to at least give ourselves a shot."