October 22, 2019 | By Lee Spencer

Logano needs to find another level to advance to season finale

“Shock and awe” aptly describes the Round of 12 for Joey Logano and the No. 22 Team Penske squad.

The defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup champion had an average finish of 20.6 in the last three races. He entered Kansas Speedway sixth in the standings but on the bubble after Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney, who were below the cut line, won the first two races in the Round of 12.

Logano survived a late-race wreck on the frontstretch to salvage a 17th-place finish and advance to the Round of 8. But the team will have to elevate its game to have any hope of transferring to the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“Starting in Dover, when we watched the race start in the garage (due to a mechanical failure), then the crash in Talladega but scoring enough stage points and an OK enough finish to get some points,” Logano said of his early misfortunes.

“Then (Kansas), whew, we got that stage win which was great, and that’s a point that will continue on, so that is a big deal. We needed every point we could and it looked like we were in a good spot.”

Crew chief Todd Gordon has made the most of accumulating stage points throughout the season, and Sunday at Kansas was no exception. Keeping Logano on the track in the closing laps of Stage 1 and putting the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford in a position to gain points and ultimately the stage win proved invaluable to moving on in the Playoffs.

“That was a great call,” Logano said. “I was unsure about it when we did it. I was scared that it was going to set us back too far in the pack after the stage, but boy those points were too important. It was a smart move. Good call to get us to third and a good restart got us to the front and grab that stage win.

“We needed every point we could—all the way through that race. It was brutal.”

Logano dropped to 15th after the stage-end pit stop. He quickly recovered and finished seventh in Stage 2 to gain four more points. After the final restart, Logano was holding onto 13th when all hell broke loose.

“Next thing you know they are wrecking on the outside and I get hit (by Austin Dillon) and I am going through the grass,” Logano said. “I felt comfortable before that but the next thing you know—I am watching it here on the replay for the first time—I didn’t hit anything so I got lucky for sure. I have been lucky a few times.

“We were able to finish Talladega (11th), and I parked the thing and there was a hole in the radiator. It was hard-fought and blue-collar round for sure. We just have to smooth it out a little bit. We need to not have as much carnage out there and finish some of these things.”

Unlike the Round of 12, Logano won’t survive the next three races without a win or at least three top-five finishes. The Joe Gibbs Racing armada, consisting of points leader Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Sunday’s winner Denny Hamlin, tops the standings—and they’ll leave no room for error from the five other Playoff contenders

Logano is the defending winner of this weekend’s First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway. He has started from the pole at the half-mile paperclip in five of his last nine starts. Texas Motor Speedway has also been a solid track for Logano, with one win, eight top fives and 10 top 10s in his last 13 starts. He finished third in the Playoff race in 2018.

However, if Logano enters ISM Raceway needing to win, that could prove problematic. Logano has one victory at Phoenix—but that was three years ago. Since then, his average finish has been 21.8. Had it not been for his Martinsville win in the penultimate round last year, his 37th-place run at ISM would have knocked him out of contention.

“We have to smooth out our days,” Logano said. “That’s probably the first thing and the most controllable thing we need to work on—we need to work on getting through the races with nothing happening. We shouldn't have loose wheels on restarts. We have to clean that stuff up.

“I have to be smoother on the race track and make sure I’m getting the most out of it from there. We have to clean up our pit stops. We have to be faster there. We have to look at every department and be a little bit better right now.”

It has been 17 races since Logano last won at Michigan Speedway in June. In that period, Joe Gibbs Racing drivers have won six times, while Team Penske visited Victory Lane just once with Blaney at Talladega. Logano’s average finish is 15.1 since Michigan. While he’s had race-winning cars, the last time Logano contended was at Las Vegas where he led 105 laps but finished ninth.

“We’re definitely not where we need to be but I think we can close the gap,” Logano said. “Don’t take that as me saying, ‘We can’t win this thing.’ We just have some work to do, and I know we can do it.”

Logano didn’t light the world on fire during last year’s Playoffs. His average finish entering Homestead was 9.44. This year, Logano’s average result in the first six postseason races is 15.6.

While there has really been no Big 3 this year in the Cup Series, the JGR Toyotas have won half of the 32 races run this season. If Logano has any shot of transferring to the season finale—and of being competitive should he get there—the No. 22 Team Penske Ford needs to right the ship now.