Logano snaps Richmond drought, surges into Chase
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- Joey Logano won at Richmond Raceway Saturday, holding off Chase Briscoe by 0.392 seconds for his 39th career Cup Series victory — his third Richmond win but his first at the 0.75-mile oval in nine years.
- Logano has won twice in the past four races after just one victory in his previous 56 starts, vaulting from 20th in points at the season's halfway mark to ninth with two races remaining before the 16-driver Chase field is set.
- The 2026 season fits Logano's pattern of even-year dominance — since 2014 he has won the Cup title or advanced to the championship round in every even-numbered year, typically fueled by a late-season surge.
- Chase Briscoe led a race-high 171 of 400 laps but settled for second, his best Richmond finish in 10 career starts at the track; he did clinch a Chase spot with his sixth top-10 in the past seven races.
- Austin Cindric finished third — his best result since winning at Talladega Superspeedway in April 2025 — and credited teammate Logano with advice that helped him at Richmond.
- Richmond Raceway dedicated grandstand seats to the family of Denny Hamlin, who finished fourth; the ceremony honored Hamlin's parents, with his father Dennis having died in a house fire last December.
- On Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s podcast, Ty Gibbs lobbied NASCAR to remove the digital rearview camera implemented four years ago, joking that some Cup drivers would be out of the series without it.
Why it matters: With two races left before the Chase field locks, Logano's climb from 20th to ninth in the standings — plus his pattern of peaking in even-numbered years — makes him a serious title threat again. Richmond's 11th sellout in 24 Cup races this season, at roughly half its 112,000-seat peak, shows the downsized venue is filling back up.
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