For a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion like Joey Logano, a run similar to the one that he endured last weekend at Darlington Raceway is a major culture shock.
The driver of the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse was shaken to his core last weekend at the 1.366-mile racetrack, after finishing a dismal 33rd, three laps off the pace of the leader.
However, the more troubling part about Darlington wasn’t even the major loss of potential points; it was the fact that the Team Penske driver didn’t sustain any damage in the race, wasn’t involved in a wreck, and didn’t have any catastrophic issues… he was just slow.
This past weekend at Martinsville, though, the No. 22 looked like an entirely different team.
Logano was running inside the top-10 for basically the entire 400-lap contest on Sunday, but, as the race continued to unfold, the NASCAR Cup Series veteran used his prowess to slowly and methodically start working his way closer to the leaders.
During the final run of Sunday’s 400-lapper, the Middletown, Connecticut-native had jumped into the third position, and once the leaders, Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin, hit lapped traffic, Logano was able to begin reeling them in, but couldn’t make anything happen to fight for the win.
The third-place result marked the best finish for Logano since the season-opening DAYTONA 500, and just the second top-three result since his last victory at NASCAR’s top-level, last Spring at Texas Motor Speedway.
With that strong result on Sunday, Logano now has a total of 14 consecutive top-10 finishes at the half-mile paperclip, which is the longest active top-10 streak at any racetrack for a driver in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“Solid rebound for everybody. A track we expect to do well here. Glad to see that. Weekends like last weekend, you start to question everything. Nice to have a good rebound, solid car. Our car, honestly, if we were able to get to the lead, I don’t know if the No. 9 was any better than us,” Logano said. “[Chase Elliott] just got the clean air at the right time. If we were able to do that, we could have been in that position, as well.”
The top-five performance at Martinsville Speedway moves Logano off the cutline for “The Chase” after the seventh race of 2026 and into 12th in NASCAR Cup Series point standings, holding a 27-point advantage on Michael McDowell (who sits 17th) for the final spot in the post-season, as the series heads into an off-week and then to Bristol Motor Speedway.
“Proud of the team,” Logano added. “Good stage points, which we needed in both stages, and a solid third-place. Something nice to head into Easter with. I feel like we definitely got our heads a little bit more wrapped around these types of racetracks. That’s when you’ve got to capitalize. You have to come out here and run top-five when you have those tracks on the schedule. Got to keep working on the other ones.”
Just one week after being (by far) the worst Team Penske driver in the rundown at Darlington Raceway, Logano, the very next week, ended up leading the organization in what was a phenomenal day all-around. Ryan Blaney was a contender for a top-five spot, but finished sixth, Austin Cindric finished eighth, and Josh Berry, driving for partner team Wood Brothers Racing, rounded out the top-10 in 10th.
Next, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Bristol Motor Speedway, a racetrack where Logano has been to Victory Lane twice before, but not in more than a decade (unless you count his victory in the inaugural Bristol Dirt Race).
