Joey Logano Just Put Himself Back in the NASCAR Championship Fight

Three races into The Chase, Joey Logano has erased most of his deficit and suddenly sits only 16 points away from the championship lead. Stop us if you've seen this before.

There is something about an even-numbered year and Joey Logano that should probably start making the rest of the NASCAR garage uncomfortable.

Logano entered Bristol 51 points behind the championship lead. He left 16 points back after winning the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, jumping four positions to third in The Chase and putting himself directly behind Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin.

Three weeks ago, Logano looked like one of the drivers who might need something special to happen just to get himself into serious championship contention.

Now we're having this conversation again.

Of course we are.

Logano didn't steal Bristol in the sense that he spent the entire evening riding around and happened to be in the right place for one restart. The No. 22 was genuinely fast. Logano started second, led 81 laps during the opening stage and won it without making a pit stop during the entire 125-lap segment. He ultimately led 93 laps, second only among the Team Penske cars to Ryan Blaney's race-high 202.

Here For The Speed noticed that speed early. One of our biggest questions before the race was whether Logano would still look strong once he fell back into traffic rather than simply controlling the race from clean air. Multiple times, he worked his way back toward the front and gave us the answer.

Still, Bristol didn't look like Logano's race to win with 20 laps remaining.

Ty Gibbs had the lead. Carson Hocevar was attacking him. Kyle Larson was waiting immediately behind them.

Logano was fourth.

Then the three drivers ahead of him became completely consumed with racing one another.

Gibbs tried to keep Hocevar behind him. Hocevar attacked the No. 54. Larson joined the fight on the outside.

Logano simply went where they weren't.

On Lap 494, the No. 22 rolled underneath all three of them and came out the other side with the lead. Six laps later, he was a Bristol Night Race winner again.

That's classic Logano.

Maybe he doesn't have the fastest car at every point of a race. Maybe another driver leads more laps. Maybe somebody else appears to have control of the event.

Then the race gets ugly.

Suddenly Joey Logano is standing there with the trophy.

That ability is particularly valuable under NASCAR's new 10-race Chase format, where one huge points night can erase weeks of deficits. Logano scored 73 points at Bristol between the stage results and victory. Larson finished second and took the championship lead, but Logano's win closed what had been a significant gap almost overnight.

The milestone numbers aren't bad either.

Bristol was Logano's 40th career Cup Series victory, tying NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin for 20th on the all-time wins list. It was his third Bristol victory and third win of the 2026 season.

And now the schedule gets interesting.

The Cup Series heads to Kansas before trips to Las Vegas and Charlotte, giving teams their first sustained run of traditional intermediate tracks in months. That stretch should tell us a lot about whether the recent Ford improvement can carry over to the tracks where Toyota has frequently shown strength.

But Logano doesn't need to dominate all three.

He's 16 points out.

Christopher Bell is 17 back. Hamlin is one behind Larson.

That's no longer a championship standings sheet with one clear favorite sitting comfortably out front.

That's a fight.

During the podcast, the running joke was obvious: Logano is dangerous in even-numbered years. He won championships in 2018, 2022 and 2024, and watching him suddenly climb into third made everyone a little uncomfortable.

Superstition doesn't win championships.

Team Penske does.

And Bristol looked exactly like the kind of race Logano and Penske have built championships around — score stage points, keep the car alive, put yourself within striking distance and capitalize when everyone else starts making mistakes.

There are seven races remaining.

Joey Logano is 16 points away.

Here we go again.