Joey Logano Delivers Championship Statement With Richmond Win

Early in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season Joey Logano, and his crew chief, Paul Wolfe, were mired in possibly the largest slump of their tenure together. However, in recent weeks, the pairing has reversed the course on their 2026 story, and after a decisive win in Saturday night's Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, Logano looks more like a championship contender than a pretender.

"Don't let the boys get hot. We're pretty strong right now," Logano stated with a smile across his face after the win. "Awesome to see the speed in the 22 again. Gosh, it was a great car. We've had a great car here the last five races. We haven't been able to capitalize on the win. Been so close."

Logano isn't kidding when he says his No. 22 team have gotten hot. Over the last five races, Logano has two wins, three top-five finishes, and four top-10s. His worst finish over the stretch was a 14th-place result at Iowa Speedway.

While Logano wasn't the driver with the most laps led in Saturday night's race, that honor belonged to Chase Briscoe, the race's runner-up finisher who had 171, Logano had a very respectable 95 laps led on the evening.

The win marks the 39th of Logano's illustrious NASCAR Cup Series career.

In addition to the race win, Logano also captured the Stage 2 win, and thanks to his strong performances over the last five races, Logano has vaulted from 18th in the championship standings to ninth.

Would the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion say that his team is geared for a post-season run?

"I think so. We got a strong team, no doubt," Logano said.

Briscoe saw his performance fade on his next-to-last run of the race, as he suffered from some brake shake. However, he came on strong in the closing laps of the race, and forced Logano to stay up on the wheel to bring home the win.

"Yeah, I don't know what more I needed," Briscoe explained. "I thought that last run I was a little bit better than him. To get there at the end, prior run to the pit stop, I just lost brakes, got really, really loose. Gave up a three-second advantage. That was ultimately the difference. One bad run."

While he was sad to come up just shy of a win, it was a big night for Briscoe, who had never tallied a top-10 finish at the 0.75-mile Richmond Raceway. Now, Briscoe has to walk away feeling like he has what it takes to win at the facility.

Austin Cindric, who came into the night as the final driver inside the top-16 of the Chase standings, had the night that he needed. His No. 2 Ford was extremely fast all race long, and he was rewarded with a third-place finish.

Now, Cindric finds himself 15th in the standings, and he has a 57-point advantage over Ryan Preece, the first driver outside of the Chase cutline with two races remaining before the championship fight begins.

Denny Hamlin would come home in fourth, finishing just ahead of Chase Elliott, the leading driver in the final running order for Hendrick Motorsports.

Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Josh Berry, William Byron, and Alex Bowman rounded out the top-10 finishers in the Cook Out 400.

Cook Out 400 Race Results

1. 22 - Joey Logano
2. 19 - Chase Briscoe
3. 2 - Austin Cindric
4. 11 - Denny Hamlin
5. 9 - Chase Elliott
6. 5 - Kyle Larson
7. 20 - Christopher Bell
8. 21 - Josh Berry
9. 24 - William Byron
10. 48 - Alex Bowman
11. 45 - Tyler Reddick
12. 1 - Ross Chastain
13. 12 - Ryan Blaney
14. 97 - Shane van Gisbergen
15. 54 - Ty Gibbs
16. 7 - Daniel Suarez
17. 60 - Ryan Preece
18. 4 - Noah Gragson
19. 3 - Austin Dillon
20. 23 - Bubba Wallace
21. 17 - Chris Buescher
22. 42 - John Hunter Nemechek
23. 33 - Austin Hill
24. 35 - Riley Herbst
25. 88 - Connor Zilisch
26. 6 - Brad Keselowski
27. 43 - Erik Jones
28. 71 - Michael McDowell
29. 41 - Cole Custer
30. 34 - Todd Gilliland
31. 47 - Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
32. 10 - Ty Dillon
33. 16 - AJ Allmendinger
34. 51 - Cody Ware
35. 66 - Josh Bilicki
36. 38 - Zane Smith
37. 77 - Carson Hocevar

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