August 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\nHow much of a rise is that? Just six races ago at Sonoma Raceway, Logano was 20th in points. At the time, it seemed likely Logano wouldn\u2019t even make the 16-driver postseason field in NASCAR\u2019s first year after scrapping the old playoff format, in which Logano won all three of his Cup titles.<\/p>\n
Well, he\u2019s back. And now he has two more regular season races to move up the standings even further.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t let the boys get hot!\u201d he said on the frontstretch after the race. \u201cWe\u2019re pretty strong right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s an understatement, particularly over the last four races. Logano won the North Wilkesboro Speedway short track race on July 19, then backed it up with a third-place finish in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis.<\/p>\n
Logano finished 14th last week at Iowa, but only because his team had a disastrous pit stop that cost him what seemed like a sure top-five finish (if not the win). Now Logano is back in victory lane again, and rounding into form just in time.<\/p>\n
Of his five top-five finishes this season, three have come in the last four races. Now there\u2019s virtually no mathematical chance Logano will miss the Chase field; he\u2019s 142 points ahead of the cutoff line with two races remaining. The bigger question is how far he can rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting the points we need,\u201d Logano said.<\/p>\n
Logano\u2019s Team Penske teammates were also strong on a short track once again, with Austin Cindric getting a crucial third-place finish to boost his Chase hopes, Ryan Blaney leading 88 laps before fading to 13th, and affiliate car Josh Berry getting back-to-back top-10 finishes.<\/p>\n
Cindric had perhaps the overall performance of the night. He had a highly disappointing race at Iowa last week and was just 29 points above the cutoff line entering Richmond.<\/p>\n
But his third-place finish at Richmond, combined with a pair of fourth-place stage results, boosted him to 57 points above the cut with two races remaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the kick in the a\u2014 this team needed, man,\u201d Cindric said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Chase Briscoe was disappointed after losing to Logano by 0.39 seconds. Briscoe had a three-second lead at one point, then started losing his brakes and allowed Logano to catch him just before the final green-flag pit stop.<\/p>\n
Briscoe hounded Logano in traffic over the waning laps, but it wasn\u2019t enough. And though you\u2019d think a second-place finish and 171 laps led might come as a nice result for a driver who had never led a lap at Richmond or finished in the top 10 in nine previous starts, he was disappointed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s weird to be mad running second here,\u201d Briscoe said. \u201cJust to be that close and not get it done is still frustrating. Just wasn\u2019t able to seal the deal there at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the other big winner of the night was Trackhouse Racing driver Shane van Gisbergen, who secured a 14th-place finish to leave Richmond with a 50-point advantage over Ryan Preece for the final Chase spot.<\/p>\n
Preece, a short track ace, was expected to make up ground at Richmond. Instead, he lost ground with a disappointing 17th-place finish and heads to New Hampshire Motor Speedway in dire need of some major points before the regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway in two weeks.<\/p>\n
Austin Dillon, who had won the previous two Richmond races, was a surprising non-factor on Saturday night and finished 19th.<\/p>\n