Reigning Cup champion Joey Logano has one top-10 finish in the last eight races, but he and crew chief Paul Wolfe see progress by the team that could lead to another title run.
Logano claimed a playoff spot with his victory in Texas in early May. But since placing fourth at Nashville in early June, Logano has not finished better than ninth. He’ll look to change that Sunday at Iowa Speedway (coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network).
“When I sat down with Joey a couple of weeks ago and just kind of laid out the playoff rounds and what tracks are where, obviously it’s a little different again this year, I told him I feel pretty good, there’s a pretty clear path, ”Wolfe told NBC Sports ahead of last weekend’s race at Indianapolis. “ … There’s no reason if we do our jobs that we can’t be in Phoenix again.”
Ryan Blaney looks to repeat his win in last year’s inaugural Cup race at Iowa.
After winning only once in the regular season last year, Logano won three playoff races on the way to his third Cup title. Fifteen of his 37 career Cup wins — 40.5% — have come in the playoffs.
While Logano finished 14th at Dover and 32nd at Indianapolis the past two weeks, both races showed promise for the team, Logano said this week on “The Morning Drive” on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“Dover has notoriously been our worst racetrack, and we were pretty good there,” he said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “Like we weren’t great, we weren’t going to go up there and win the race, but we can run the top six to 10. That’s way better than last year.
“In Indy, we had better speed than we had last year and we were positioned to win that race if we can just keep air in the tire.”
Wolfe’s strategy had Logano as the lead car that had made its final pit stop before a right rear went down 25 laps from the scheduled finish. Logano’s race was made worse when he was collected in a crash on the first of two overtime restarts.
“There is some momentum behind the 22 right now, behind Team Penske, that there’s some good things going,” Logano said this week on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I mean, if I look at Indy alone, (teammate Austin Cindric) was probably the best car, probably the car that could have won the race. Had a flat tire, too. Then we were next in line. I feel like that’s a good thing. We’re not that far off.”
Wolfe said a tire test last week at New Hampshire Motor Speedway went well for the No. 22 team. New Hampshire will host the opening race of the second round of the playoffs in September.
“I feel confident in where we’re at,” Wolfe said ahead of Indy. “We had a great two days up in New Hampshire, which was encouraging. I think the driver probably has some pretty good confidence after the test as well.”
Ryan Blaney won last year’s inaugural Cup race at Iowa.
That Logano did the Goodyear tire test at New Hampshire was a part of Wolfe’s strategy to make a run at back-to-back Cup titles.
“As we looked at the testing schedule in the offseason, all the Ford teams divvy them up and then we divvy them up amongst our company,” Wolfe said. “So we’re like where do we want to go, what’s going to be most productive for us?
“There’s different theories and approaches. Do you go test at the track that is your weaker track, or do you go somewhere that is your strength and really make it better and know that you have a legit chance to win that race?
“That was kind of the approach I took, was, hey, we know (New Hampshire) is a really good track for us, it is a short track, obviously, Phoenix, the final race, is a short track, let’s take that one and make that one even a step better than what we’ve been and that was our approach.”
Wolfe admitted he had to convince Logano that it would be best to test at New Hampshire than do a tire test elsewhere. Teammate Ryan Blaney took part in a tire test at Charlotte and Cindric did the tire test at Iowa earlier this season.
“Joey, at first, when we discussed it, (he was saying) we’re not very good on intermediates, should we take the Charlotte test?” Wolfe said. “I said let (Blaney) have that, he’s typically our fastest car on the high-speed tracks. Maybe they can learn something there that helps us all.
“I feel like if we’re going to go somewhere and really dial in a setup, Joey’s going to do it as good or better than any one of our drivers in our company. I feel like we’ve shown that over the years.
“When we go to Phoenix for these championship races, us and (Blaney) are running the same setup because it works and we’ve developed it throughout the year and testing and that’s kind of what we did (at New Hampshire) and we feel good about it.”
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