NASCAR Cup Series

Forgotten man? Joey Logano might be Penske's best title hope

Published Oct. 21, 2014 11:34 a.m. ET

Tom Jensen

With all due respect to Talladega winner Brad Keselowski, his teammate Joey Logano just might be Team Penske's best hope for a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship this season.

Keselowski's stunning victory on Sunday understandably thrust him into the national headlines, but Logano has been the star of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup so far, with victories in two of the six races, three fourth-place runs and a worst result of 11th Sunday at Talladega, where his only concern was helping Keselowski win so he could make it into the next round of the Chase.

Through the first six races of the Chase, Logano's average finish is a series-best 4.167. That's well ahead of Kevin Harvick's 7.167 and Ryan Newman's 9.833. Logano is tied with Keselowski with two Chase race victories, and Logano's five top-five Chase finishes are best in the series. No one else has more than three.

And here's where it gets really interesting from Logano's point of view: The Eliminator Round of the Chase starts Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, followed by races at Texas Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway.

When the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series raced at those tracks in the spring, Logano won at Texas and finished fourth at both Martinsville and Phoenix. All told, Logano earned one victory, three top fives and 130 points at those three tracks. The next closest of the other seven Eliminator Round drivers was Jeff Gordon, who had 112 points. Keselowski earned just 78 points during those three races.

After surviving the Contender Round of the Chase and seeing the championship field reduced from 12 to eight drivers, Logano his happy about how things have gone so far.

"I thought we did a great job -- a win, a fourth and an 11th, unfortunately, here at Talladega, but we're doing what we have to do to win this championship," he said after Sunday's race.

Logano knows there's a lot more work ahead.

"Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix are obviously gonna be very important and we have to do what we've been doing," he said. "We can't let anything get to us. We've got to stay focused on what we've been doing."

So far, that hasn't been a problem at all.

Now, the final push begins, with seven other drivers to do battle with, including his own teammate, who right now is sky-high in terms of confidence.

The next test will come at the tiny .526-mile Martinsville short track, where neither Logano nor Keselowski has ever won. That said, Logano finished fourth here in the spring after leading 39 laps. His best career Martinsville finish came in the spring of 2010, when he finished second while still driving for his former team, Joe Gibbs Racing.

Sunday, Logano will try to put his Team Penske Ford in Victory Lane and lock himself into the Championship Round. It ought to be a good battle, given that Penske tested there last week.

And Logano, like teammate Keselowski and the other six Eliminator Round drivers, will go all out to get it done. Stay tuned. This is about to get interesting.

VIDEO: DW shoots the breeze with Joey Logano