Business as usual in freebie races for Chase leader Joey Logano

By Tom Jensen
Published

Joey Logano finds himself in a new position this week, one he's very happy about: For the first time in his career, the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford is the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader.

Logano, who it's sometimes easy to forget is only 24 years old, has set a torrid pace through the first four races of the 2014 edition of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

To wit, Logano leads the field in Chase race victories (2), top fives (4), top 10s (4) and average finish (2.5). His average finish through four Chase races is a record, with the only other driver in the 11-year history of the Chase to finish in the top five in the first four races being Juan Pablo Montoya in 2009.

For the full season, Logano has more top fives (14) than any other driver and is tied for the series lead in race victories (5) and top 10s (19). In other words, his spectacular Chase run has been anything but a fluke.

Putting the numbers aside, there's one really important advantage Logano has coming into Saturday night's Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway: He's the only driver who has clinched a spot in the eight-driver Eliminator Round of the Chase, which begins in two weeks at Martinsville Speedway.

That means Logano doesn't have to worry about where he finishes Saturday night at Charlotte or eight days later at Talladega. Even if he ends up 43rd both weeks, he's still locked into the penultimate Chase round.

And with Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski and the entire four-car Hendrick Motorsports armada buried eighth or worse in points thanks to a series of crashes and tire failures last Sunday at Kansas Speedway, Logano is in a great position to win his first championship.

"You look at the guys who have been fast throughout the whole year and you see them (Keselowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson) kind of in the bottom three right now, that's pretty surprising," said Logano on Thursday at Charlotte. "I'm sure they're all gonna have good runs this weekend and will rise to the occasion, but this is probably gonna be a round that knocks somebody out that can win this championship or had a really good shot at it."

Logano said he is working hard to stay focused, even with two freebie races for him coming up.

"As Roger (Penske, team owner) likes to say, 'You can't trip over your own press clippings,'" said Logano. "I keep working really hard and stay ahead of it, but if you think of the 48 (Johnson) or one of those guys getting knocked out that by stats are the best guys out there that have a shot at winning this championship, it does help your shot a lot."

Still, the Penske driver insists he's not looking ahead to the season finale at Homestead.

"Right now we're thinking about Charlotte," said Logano. "We're thinking about our Martinsville test we've got coming up this week. I think that's gonna be a key point for us. These next two (races) are all about just keeping the momentum going -- keep the ball rolling like we've got, keep everybody motivated, keep our team going and have a good test up here at Martinsville and hit those Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix races as hard as we can -- get nice, solid finishes at the worst, and if we get a win, then you're in really good shape because at that point you can't finish worse than fourth."

Logano said it will be business as usual this weekend.

"Our mindset now is basically the same thing as what we had -- to keep going at these race tracks, keep attacking and keep that momentum going," he said. "I feel like we can have a good showing here again at Charlotte and then we don't have to worry about Talladega as much anymore, so that's nice.  When we get to the next round, we'll try to win Martinsville and hopefully be in the same shoes again. For now, our mindset is to go out there and win just like we've been doing."