With 5 races to go,
a playoff position
is in serious doubt
Once upon a time, Joey Logano seemed like easy money to make the NASCAR Cup playoffs.
Look at the steady and smooth progression. He finished eighth in 2013 and since has wound up fourth, sixth and second. But the 27-year-old is 13th in points this season and on a slippery slope.
He is “kinda” winless with five races to go — Watkins Glen, Michigan, Bristol, Darlington and Richmond — before the 16-driver cut to determine the playoff participants. Logano did win at Richmond International Raceway in April, which looked like a nice setup in a bid for his first championship.
But not quite. NASCAR determined that Logano’s victory was “encumbered” and will not count toward qualifying him for a playoff spot. Logano’s No. 22 team was popped for a rear-suspension violation discovered during teardown.
With five other drivers in the mix who are behind on points but have a win that would squeeze Logano out of a playoff spot based on the qualification format, you can see why Logano is in such a pickle.
And two non-race winners are ahead of him in points: Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer.
Simply put, Logano is a daunting 69 points outside of the playoffs, so he needs a victory — and no more than two other new winners — to merit a postseason position.
“They are working themselves into a must-win situation,” NBC racing analyst Jeff Burton said after Logano’s team struggled once again Sunday at Pocono.
Logano had some more self-inflicted bumps and bruises at Pocono, where he finished 27th but could have finished much higher. He was in the mix for the top 10 with 35 laps left when he committed a pit-road speeding penalty.
It then got worse. The team violated a rule that bars pit work while serving penalties when crew chief Todd Gordon made the call to change tires on Logano’s car.
That’s not all on Logano. For a detail-oriented owner such as Roger Penske, Gordon’s technical hiccups should be unacceptable.
“We’ve got five race tracks we’ve been very successful at,” Gordon said. “We just have to continue to do what we’ve done.”
Logano obviously hasn’t been bad. He has eight top-5 finishes. But that simply isn’t good enough. And he knows it.
“This isn’t what you expect when you start the season,” Logano said a few weeks ago in New Hampshire. “You go out there expecting to win the championship, and the playoffs you just assume you would be there. I still assume we are going to be there. We just have to work hard to get there.”
And not make mistakes that are inexcusable for a veteran driver and team.
Kenseth is out of a ride after he completes this season at Joe Gibbs Racing. Reason to worry? Nah.
“I am not concerned at all about 2018 at the moment,” Kenseth said during NBCSN’s prerace coverage at Pocono. “I’m really concerned about 2017 — winning races, being successful and trying to race for a championship.
“I am in a great place mentally. Things will line up and go how they are meant to go. Whatever that is, I really do not know 100 percent. But I know it is all going to work out.”
With Hendrick Motorsports filling the No. 88 ride with Alex Bowman, Kenseth is running out of options to hitch a ride with a veteran team. So maybe there really is a reason to worry.
The good news for Kenseth: With 594 points, he is provisionally in the playoffs.
For a driver whose NASCAR future is in doubt beyond this season, that’s a nice uptick.
“You cannot go from running 20th to winning races,” Burton said. “You have to crawl and work your way up. Her crew chief was very complimentary about everything she has been doing this year to be a better race car driver.”
Despite the incremental progress, Patrick is 28th in the Monster Energy Cup standings.
“We have really gained some consistency over the past few weekends,” Patrick said. “I think we’re going to put together more top 15s and top 10s this season as long as we can stay out of trouble and finish the race.”
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