MADISON, Ill. — With the uncertainties around next weekend’s cutoff race at Bristol, former Cup champions Chase Elliott and Joey Logano needed a good race Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Both drivers delivered with top-five finishes, putting themselves in position to advance to the second round of the playoffs next weekend.
Elliott finished third — the best result for Hendrick Motorsports in four races at World Wide Technology Raceway. Logano placed fifth — giving him a top-five finish in all four starts here.
Joe Gibbs Racing driver advances in playoffs with 59th career victory and series-high fifth of season.
Elliott is ninth in the standings, 28 points above the cutline. Logano is 10th in the standings, 21 points above the cutline.
“We walked in today, I said, we’ve got to leave here plus-20 to feel OK,” Logano said.
Logano admits that “20 points can swing a lot of different ways. … It’s still going to be tight. There’s no doubt it’s not comfortable.”
Logano extends top-five streak in St. Louis
Joey Logano continued his streak of top-five finishes at World Wide Technology Raceway despite losing the balance late in the race and shares what makes him so good at the short, flat tracks.
But it’s better than it could have been had he followed his 20th-place finish in the playoff opener at Darlington with a similar result Sunday.
Elliott and Logano entered this weekend close to the cutline. Elliott was nine points above it. Logano was three points below it.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver won from the pole to earn his series-high fifth victory this season.
This 1.25-mile track near St. Louis had not been good for Hendrick Motorsports, raising questions about where Elliott could be entering Bristol.
Logano won at this track in 2022 and had never finished outside the top five in three races here. That type of performance was viewed as needed with his recent struggles at Bristol — he has not finished in the top 20 in the last five races there.
Elliott showed ‘good offense’ at WWT Raceway
Chase Elliott was encouraged to be on offense at World Wide Technology Raceway after coming home third and apologizes to Josh Berry for contact early in the race.
Add that there’s a new right-side tire at Bristol that has shown much wear, according to teams, and the possibility of getting caught up in a crash there, the focus for Elliott and Logano was to leave World Wide Technology Raceway with as much of a points cushion as possible.
“We did a good job of executing today,” Logano said. “Wish it was a win, but, overall, another top five here in St. Louis is good.”
Ryan Blaney said of Kyle Larson’s contact: “That’s one I’ve got to remember.”
Elliott scored his first top-five finish in the last seven races.
“It was awesome to be up there in the mix,” he said. “It’s been a minute since I feel like we’ve been on that type of offense on restarts. Just had the pace and the balance of the car doing what I needed it to do.
“I felt like I was doing a better job today of just extracting the pace in the right ways and making it live on the long run. So really proud of the effort. Great time to have a good run. Hopefully, we keep it going next week.”
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