Joey Logano just pulled off a heist at Bristol Motor Speedway, yet he insists his game plan hasn’t shifted one bit. Kyle Larson, the three-time Cup Series champion, leads by only 16 points after the driver cut a massive chunk from his points deficit. While the rest of the field scrambles to figure out the new points reset, Logano is calm.
He told the press that the path to the title is simple math, not magic. “This points format is an average. Every race is as equally as important as the next. “Nothing changes here, as it is just about averaging the most points you possibly can get, Logano stated.
The Math of a Title Run
Logano’s third win of the 2026 season came after a chaotic finish where he drove underneath a mess between Ty Gibbs and Carson Hocevar. He now sits in third place, right in the mix for the championship. But don’t let the momentum fool you. The next three races are all on 1.5-mile tracks, a surface where Logano has struggled all year. Earlier this season, he placed 15th at Las Vegas and 30th at Kansas. Despite those bad results, he believes the team can still average enough points to catch Larson. It is a bold claim, but he has proven he can win when others crash.
Per Yahoo Sports, Logano earned a 73-point night at Bristol, which helped him climb from a deep hole. Beginning the Chase in ninth place with a 65-point deficit, he has now surged to third. To keep the dream alive, his crew chief Paul Wolfe established a weekly target of averaging 40 points. That is a tall order when the competition includes drivers like Larson, who has three wins at the very tracks coming up next. Larson led 78 laps at Kansas in April and finished second, showing he owns these ovals. Logano knows the odds are stacked against him on paper.
Why The Competition Is Panicking
While Logano stays cool, others are losing their minds. Ryan Blaney, the 2023 champion, already thinks his shot is gone. He finished 33rd at Bristol, his second straight finish outside the top 30. “I just don’t see that you can finish outside the top 30 multiple times and have a shot,” Blaney said. He trails Larson by 51 points now, which is more than double his deficit from the start of the Chase. The pressure is real, and the new format punishes bad days harder than before.
Blaney’s frustration boiled over into a fight with Carson Hocevar, who bumped him into a crash that ended a promising race. Hocevar admitted he understands the anger. “I understand why he’s upset,” Hocevar said. “That’s probably his championship. I’d probably be mad, too,” he added. The drama is high, but Logano seems to be the only one thinking about the long game. He even admitted he could have wrecked Christopher Bell earlier in the race but chose not to make an enemy. “You got to think big picture,” Logano explained in a recent interview with Daily Downforce.
The upcoming stretch at Kansas, Las Vegas, and Charlotte will test Logano’s theory. Larson has already shown he excels at these tracks, and he sits on top of the standings. Logano needs to fix his 1.5-mile issues fast. Following his second-place run at Bristol, Larson remarked, “It’s good, but there’s still so much racing left.” If Logano can’t find speed on these long ovals, his “nothing changes” mantra might just become a funeral march for his title hopes. The math says it is hard, but Logano has always been good at doing the impossible.
