Joey Logano wins second-straight Bristol night race
With two races to go before the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Joe Gibbs Racing has installed itself as the favorite with seven wins over the past 10 races. If you're naming challengers to JGR for the title of best team at the moment, Team Penske is at the top of the list. And its because of a former Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
Joey Logano got his third win of the season Saturday night at Bristol, holding off Kevin Harvick for his second-straight win at Bristol in August. Logano now has the third-most wins in the Cup Series, behind Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch with four, and tied with Matt Kenseth.
Logano had to battle through lapped traffic at the end of the race but was quicker than Harvick off the corners through the final laps. While Harvick could power his car into the corners faster than Logano, he lost the time he made up on entry off the corner, and Logano was able to pull away on Bristol's short straightaways.
The win was also Logano's second win in the past three races. He won two weeks ago at Watkins Glen, his first win since he won the season-opening Daytona 500.
Busch has been the story of the Sprint Cup Series since he returned from broken bones in his legs and feet at Daytona and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates have also been fast too as Kenseth has won two of the last four races. But while Gibbs has been the fastest team, Logano has been fast too. He has eight top-10 finishes in the past 10 races.
Harvick's been pretty damn good too. Saturday night was his second-straight second-place finish and his third week in the top three. It was also his seventh-straight top-five finish, a recipe that's sure to be successful in the Chase, where avoiding bad finishes is imperative.
Though winning not only gets you bonus points when the Chase begin, it also automatically advances you to the next round during it. And the wins are why Logano and JGR have to be feeling good about their chances as well.
Both Harvick and Logano were in the final round of the 2014 Chase along with Denny Hamlin, another JGR driver and Saturday night's third-place finisher. Could history repeat itself? A lot can change as the Chase goes on as the three-race per round format lends itself to randomness. One bad finish could eliminate a favorite.
But if you're going to guess who is in the final round of the Chase in 2015, you could do far worse than Logano, Harvick and a Gibbs driver or two.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
