North Wilkesboro was a huge breather for Joey Logano and his 22 Ford team. After what was turning out to be the Penske driver’s worst season in his two-decade Cup career, he turned things around and won his first race of the season, jumping two spots up to 15th.

But while his Penske and Ford teammate Ryan Blaney still sits at 3rd, the Toyotas still rule the season, comprising the remaining three cars in the top four. Now, as Team Penske is coming in hot with two fresh wins in two races, Logano is planning to go all in from here.

Speaking with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Logano recently mentioned how Penske was able to capitalize on the last two tracks where they’re good at, namely, Atlanta and North Wilkesboro.

Blaney, who has enjoyed eight top 5s at Atlanta including a previous win in 2021, dominated this season’s race as he led 171 laps and won all three stages. In the next race at North Wilkesboro, the first at the track in two decades, Logano repeated Blaney’s domination as he led 323 of the 450 laps.

And in the next one, the Penske boys have the home turf advantage.

“I think we're heading into a couple of tracks that are really in our wheelhouse right now,” said Logano, in the tweet uploaded by SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “Indy will be interesting to see where we're at. I think we've made progress on the mile-and-a-half tracks.”

Both Blaney and Logano finished top-10 in two of their last four visits at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, owned by team boss Roger Penske. For Blaney, it was his last two in the past two years, while for Logano it was in 2020 and 2019. His last two races there ended in DNFs.

But he isn’t backing down now, especially after this momentum the team’s enjoying. While he acknowledges the threat from the Toyotas, he explains that the sport goes through cycles, so what goes up will come down, and vice versa.

“You've got to capitalize when you've got the speed. When you don't, you've got to grind it out. It just keeps going back and forth.”

The secret to survival is to stay long enough for the situation to turn better, he further mentioned. As of now, Logano sits at the edge in the standings with 511 points in 15^th place, 49 points above the cutline.

A three-time Cup champion in the playoffs era, he surely misses the old format during this tough phase.

“It's more difficult to come back now, and we'll have to adjust the way we approach it. But the opportunity is still there. We've just got to work a little harder to make it happen.”

But while Logano is focused on keeping Team Penske's momentum alive, teammate Ryan Blaney has another battle on his hands on Sunday.

Blaney and Gilliland gear up for the In-Season Challenge finale

As Ryan Blaney and Todd Gilliland get ready for the final round of NASCAR's second In-Season Challenge for the $1 million prize, the Ford drivers shared a few light-hearted jabs during separate media sessions, as reported by NASCAR.com.

Despite being viewed by many as the favorite, Blaney isn't taking Gilliland lightly. Indianapolis has been one of Gilliland's strongest tracks in recent years. The Front Row Motorsports driver has averaged a sixth-place finish since the Cup Series returned to the oval. Blaney's own average finish in this span is fifth.

"Todd is a great driver, and they have a really good team over there, so it's gonna be tough," Blaney said, dismissing suggestions that the matchup would be an easy one.

Gilliland, meanwhile, took a lighthearted jab at that.

“Put the house on us, that’s what I would say,” he said. “We made it this far, why not us? We’ll see.

“It’s crazy. It’s only one person standing between us and winning this thing, so I’m excited about it.”

Who are you rooting for? Let us know in the comments!

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Written by

Suyashdeep Sason

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason