Joey Logano is crazy.
The two-time Cup champion snapped his 49-race winless streak at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday after a miraculous 110-lap race on a single tank of fuel. All of Logano’s competitors ran out of fuel while he managed to last a record five overtime restarts.
Logano is the 11th driver to win in 2024, leaving just five playoff spots unclaimed with seven races remaining in the regular season.
Next up will be NASCAR’s second street race in Chicago, with the Grant Park 165 scheduled for Sunday on KeynoteUSA. How do the field stack up heading into the Windy City? Here are our latest NASCAR standings:
1. Kyle Larson
Last week: 1
For the first time all season, Larson has gone back-to-back races without leading a lap. The 2021 champion finished eighth in Nashville after being involved in two of the overtime cautions. It wasn’t the cleanest race by any means, but it was enough to regain the overall points lead.
2. Denny Hamlin
Last week: 3
Hamlin was seconds away from winning in regulation… then he was seconds away from winning in double overtime… then he ran out of gas. He recovered to finish 12th due to all the chaos around him, but Hamlin’s day should have ended much better.
3. Christopher Bell
Last week: 4
Does the driver who crashed and finished in 36th place move up the rankings? That’s what happens when you lead 131 laps (the most in the race) and win both stages. Bell’s streak in the top 10 was broken at five races, but the No. 20 team has more speed than anyone right now.
4. Chase Elliott
Last week: 2
Despite two spins and running out of fuel, Elliott finished 18th to keep his top-20 streak alive. The 2020 champion is the first driver since 1991 and only the fourth to finish in the top 20 in the first 19 races of a season. Elliott finished third at Chicago last year and leads all active drivers with seven road-course wins.
5. Ryan Blaney
Last week: 5
Blaney appeared to have the wrong fuel strategy before all overtime restarted. However, all the calamity saved the day and he crossed the finish line in sixth place. The defending champion comes to Chicago looking to improve on his 33rd-place finish from last year.
6. Tyler Reddick
Last week: 8
Third place was a big disappointment for Reddick, who was clearly discouraged after the race. He had fresher tires and more fuel, but couldn’t get past Logano in the final overtime. Still, he scored a race-high 51 points and now heads to Chicago as one of the series’ top road racers.
7. Brad Keselowski
Last week: 7
Like Bell and Elliott, Keselowski spun in the final stage. He was several laps down with a damaged car and finished 25th after placing fifth in the first two stages. Keselowski has now finished 25th or worse in consecutive races for the first time since the first two races of 2024.
8. William Byron
Last week: 6
Byron fell out of the top-10 midway through the race, had a bad pit stop and then couldn’t get through traffic. He finished 19th, which was better than it looked before all the overtime. After three wins in the first eight races this season, Byron has finished 15th or worse in six of the past nine weeks.
9. Ross Chastain
Last week: 9
It was almost back-to-back wins at Nashville for Chastain before he was wrecked in overtime. A 33rd-place finish won’t help him on the playoff bubble, but the speed he showed in the final stage is promising for Trackhouse Racing, the same organization that won at Chicago last July.
10. Joey Logano
Last week: First four eliminated
This must have made Logano feel good. Through 18 races, he was on pace for his worst finishing average since 2012 and the first time he hadn’t made the playoffs since 2017. But now he’s tied to the postseason, where Logano will fight for a third title. His 33rd career win puts him in a tie for 27th on the all-time list with Hall of Famer Fireball Roberts.
The first four to leave: Martin Truex Jr., Chris Buescher, Ty Gibbs and Alex Bowman
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