Logano Shows Old School Dominance In North Wilkesboro Cup Win

Joey Logano celebrates after winning Sunday night's NASCAR Cup Series race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. (Scotte Sprinkle/SWN photo)

By Scotte Sprinkle, SWN Staff Writer

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. (July 19, 2026) – Joey Logano dominated Sunday night’s Window World 400 at North Wilkesboro Speedway to win the first points race at the track in 30 years and his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in more than a year.

The win and race matched the weekend; old school NASCAR. The significance of the race was not lost on anyone. It marked the first time the Cup Series held a points paying race at the historic track since 1996.

Even though the track was revived in 2022 and NASCAR returned with the All-Star race in 2023, having a 450-lap points race completed the revival.

The race was very 1990s-esque as well. A caution during a green-flag pit cycle – for Alex Bowman and Tyler Reddick crashing at pit-in on lap 183 – trapped numerous contending cars a lap down, and drivers had to manage their equipment, the track, and lapped traffic all race long.

Not only was Logano’s win much needed, the domination was extra important. The three-time Cup Series champion had a 45-race winless streak going into the night and hadn’t looked in a position of strength at any venue all season.

Logano started in 11th due to the metric after qualifying was rained out Saturday, but once he got to the front, it was clear he had the car to beat.

Denny Hamlin was the only driver able to challenge Logano’s speed. Hamlin closed within half a second on a few occasions through green-flag pit cycles and lap traffic. Lap traffic was difficult to navigate throughout most of the night with the close quarters racing.

Logano managed it best though, and pulled out to a .859-second lead by the time the checkered flag waved. He led 323 laps out of the 450, his most ever in a single Cup race, and lapped up to sixth place.

“It was just a solid race car,” Logano said in victory lane after the 38th victory of his Cup career and first since May 2025 at Texas Motor Speedway. “I knew in practice that the car had speed and the balance was really loose. When you have that, it's like, ‘OK, if we get the balance right, this thing is really fast, I think.’ So, they did a good job dialing it in overnight and putting it in position at the end of the first stage. That’s when we finally got where we needed to be and were able to just set sail up front. 

“It was just a really solid race car. I was lucky to get to drive this one today and really just being able to manage a lot of things inside the car, so I’m proud of Paul Wolfe. He does a good job. We tested twice over the offseason here when they were testing all of the other stuff with the rules packages and stuff, so just a really good tester.”

The last few weeks have been a good turnaround for Logano and the whole No. 22 team. North Wilkesboro has been one of their best tracks since its return and the next few races before the Chase are right in their wheelhouse as well – with short tracks in Iowa Speedway, Richmond (Va.) Raceway, and New Hampshire Motor Speedway all on deck over the next five weeks.

“I don’t want to be a one-track wonder, but right now it’s a good one to be good at and last year you feel like you had one taken away there at the end,” Logano said. “Even [on] the old pavement, I felt like we had a chance of winning that All-Star Race as well. We just have always had fast cars here and have been able to manage the short track stuff. That’s definitely in our wheelhouse right now.”

For the first time since the Next-Gen car’s introduction, Logano spent most of the season below the Chase cutline and remained winless. Now they not only have a win to their name, but a nice jump in the point standings as well. They have vaulted up to 15th in the standings and now have a 49-point cushion.

Logano and the team are feeling good now as the regular season is coming to an end and the Chase approaches.

“It’s one step at a time. I always said this team doesn’t crack under pressure. Like, that's our biggest strength, is that we're an even-keeled team. You just keep going along,” he noted. “Obviously the pressure’s on us right now. This team usually excels in those situations, under pressure. We’ve seen that for years in the playoff system. It really put us under that crazy amount of pressure for years. Our team’s gotten really good at [managing] that.

“This point of the season where we are, yeah, we’re in the crazy amount of pressure territory just to get in. I like that. I like that our team excels in that. I think all of us do,” he added. A lot of that's just cause of experience that we’ve been there, done that. The pressure’s still on. It’s not a comfortable situation. Still it's a long way from the ultimate goal.”

Crew chief Paul Wolfe feels confident in the team being able to retain their current speed as well.

“I think we’re a solid top-five team on pit road by a lot of the stats. I’ve just continued to preach to those guys, just make sure we continue to work at that level because eventually we’re going to get the car where it needs to be,” Wolfe said of the No. 22 team’s pit crew. “We need those guys to be at that level. They showed that tonight, which was super encouraging. We were flawless on pit road.

“Just had a dominant performance because everyone has continued to work at the level and expectation of everyone at Team Penske. … We still have a lot of work to do, but we know the short tracks are our strength. We have to execute on these weekends here leading up to the end of the regular season and score those points to at least give ourselves a shot.”

Chase Briscoe finished third, followed by Ty Gibbs and a surprising Shane Van Gisbergen, who scored his first career top five on an oval after driving to the point four different times and leading 49 laps overall.

Bubba Wallace finished a strong sixth after also leading laps and was the last car scored on the lead lap.

Next for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Brickyard 400 at historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the 2.5-mile oval now owned by Logano’s boss, Roger Penske. Wallace is the defending event winner.