NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Joey Logano's win at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday night marked far more than just his 38th career Cup Series win.
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This win served as his most dominant performance in eight years (Martinsville in 2018), and it snapped a year-plus streak in which the No. 22 team has struggled mightily.
Simply put, this was a performance that the team needed to remind itself that it can still perform at a high level.
"It's been a tough year, no doubt. Anytime you kind of lack in speed, you start to question a lot of things around you, what the process is, what we're doing, yourself," Logano said after leading 323 laps in a dominant performance.
"All those things come to mind on why there's not speed. When you come to a track like North Wilkesboro, if we didn't have speed, we'd really be scratching our heads because we feel like this is our best racetrack, a track we've been fast at before."
Joey Logano wins at North Wilkesboro, ending a 45 race winless streak.
He led 323 laps, his most ever in a Cup Series race (636 career starts).
Six cars finished on the lead lap, the fewest since Bristol in March 2024 (5 cars). pic.twitter.com/6G76I9VPxS
— NASCAR Insights (@NASCARInsights) July 20, 2026
Logano is no stranger to winning, especially on short tracks, since moving to Team Penske in 2013. He has scored 36 wins in the No. 22, and he has won three championships.
Yet, he entered Sunday night's race in a severe dry spell. Prior to taking the checkered flag at North Wilkesboro Speedway, he had not won since May 4, 2025, at Texas Motor Speedway.
He had only posted two top-five finishes in 20 races to start the 2026 season, and he had fallen below the cutline for The Chase.
The No. 12 team and Ryan Blaney, for comparison, had led the way for Ford and Team Penske. This group had won six Cup races while Logano and the No. 22 team had struggled.
"There's doubts, for sure at times," crew chief Paul Wolfe said about this stretch. "I don't know how anyone can struggle at times like we did this year and not doubt. Are we doing this right, are we ever going to win again?"
This 45-race winless streak led to some frustrating moments for the No. 22 team. Logano also had many candid conversations with Team Penske Vice Chairman Walt Czarnecki.
But Logano didn't rage at the team or call for changes to the No. 22 team. According to Wolfe, the veteran driver just remained positive while dealing with the struggles on the track. According to Czarnecki, Logano looked at the struggles through an analytical lens.
How could he help the team just fix its problems?
"He's never lost his positive attitude," Czarnecki said. "He never lost the fact that he's a three-time champion. Didn't forget how to drive the car, a cliche.
"He's frustrated, as Paul said. He's expressed it. At least with me, he's not been, what, really — I don't want to say wild about it — but he hasn't lost his composure."
This attitude helped Logano and the No. 22 team break through and score a dominant win, but the work is far from over. The three-time champion is still 15th in the Cup Series standings with five races remaining in the regular season.
At this point, the No. 22 team does not believe it can contend for the championship. It still needs to work on achieving consistency on intermediate tracks, which have been a source of frustration in recent years. The team also needs to keep performing on short tracks where it expects to win.
Yes, work remains, but the team finally saw a glimmer of hope on Sunday night in front of a sold-out crowd at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
"I think if we keep doing what we did tonight, we can get back into the top 10 in points," Logano said. "It's a ways out, but we can get there if we keep having great runs where we can score stage points in both stages, finish in the top 10.
"If you could do that consistently enough, we'll scratch and claw our way back to where we have a chance to win still.
"I don't think 15th is good enough to enter the Playoffs or the Chase, think you have a shot at winning the championship. If we can keep grinding through these next few weeks, maybe we can get ourself in a position to maybe we can have a shot at something."
