Joey Logano grabbed his first NASCAR Cup Series Win on Sunday in the Window World 450 at North Wilkesboro Speedway to become the first Cup series winner at the short track since 1996.
Logano led 323 of 45o laps en route to victory and took the stage two win as well for his first stage win of the year to match his first victory. Before the weekend, the two-time champion foud himself below the playout cutline with the regular season drawing to a close, his win propels him into the playoffs as of now.
“A win anywhere at this point would have sounded great,” Logano said post-race in the TNT on-camera interview. “Coming here to North Wilkesboro is awesome. I picked up a passenger on the backstretch [His son Hudson. What a great car. Paul Wolfe, what a great car he put together for us today. Just was able to execute a smooth pace. Everyone on pit road did a good job. The engine and Roush Yates were good. It’s good to get back into victory lane. It’s been a tough year. So getting the Shell-Pennzoil Mustang doing some big, smokey doughnuts around this place felt really good.”
Logano held off Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, and Ty Gibbs for the win.
Shane van Gisbergen backed up his third-place finish in the NASCAR Truck Series race Saturday night with his third fifth-place finish in a NASCAR Cup Series Oval race. He held the lead early in the first stage and jokingly asked his team what to do in that situation.
“What the f*ck do I do now?” van Gisbergen radioed.
Gibbs won stage one before the race was taken over by Logano. The race ran with only three natural cautions, one in the first stage and two in the second, giving Logano a chance to stretch his lead over the field. In the end he beat Hamlin by o.859 seconds as the two battled well ahead of the rest of the field.
Only six cars finished on the lead lap, with 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace being the final lead-lap finisher in sixth. Brand Keselowski, Todd Gilliland, Daniel Suárez, and Ryan Preece completed the top ten.
Victoria Beaver is a nomadic sports writer who spends her time hopping between race tracks and hippie farms. She’s covered every corner of motorsports that will let her in from 410 Sprints to NASCAR to Supercross. Her daily driver is a 2010 Subaru that she refused to do the smallest amount of preventative maintenance on. Instead, she spends her free time and money building a 42-foot Skoolie to one day travel the country full time.