NASCAR insider points to Joey Logano’s steady progress - “Them winning a race doesn’t surprise me at all”

Despite Joey Logano's dismal outing at the Sonoma Raceway, NASCAR insider Jordan Bianchi has highlighted the Team Penske driver's progressive improvement in the current season. Although Logano couldn't clinch a promising result at the recently wrapped-up 110-lap dash, he outshone his rivals during the qualifying run several times.

The #22 Ford driver's footing in the 2024 season kicked off poorly. From his first six races, the Connecticut native could come home with a solitary top-10 finish at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

However, he reclaimed his mojo and churned back-to-back promising results. After bagging a second-place finish at the Richmond Raceway, Joey Logano claimed a sixth-place finish on his next run at the Martinsville Speedway.

Since the Martinsville run, the Team Penske driver has collected the All-Star Race win and scored his second top-five finish of the season at the World Wide Technology Raceway. Despite having varied levels of performance, Logano, on several occasions, outperformed his rivals during the qualifying run.

In 17 races so far, the #22 Ford driver has placed his high-octane ride on the pole four times - the Daytona 500, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, North Wilkesboro Speedway, and the recent Sonoma debacle. Furthermore, for the majority of his stints, Joey Logano has been consistent with his qualifying runs, repeatedly putting his Mustang among the frontrunners, if not the pole.

Seeing the two-time Cup Series champion's steady progress, NASCAR insider Jordan Bianchi outlined that he won't be astonished to see the #22 Ford winning "over the next 10 weeks."

"He [Logano] comes here, wins the pole, leads a bunch of laps, and then ends up finishing 21st [at Sonoma]. If you're Joey Logano, I guess you have two schools of thought. Like, 'Man, missed the opportunity, we could've won this race or at least finished up there and got a bunch of points.' I'll take the other side of this thought and say, 'I think if I'm Logano, I'm encouraged with the direction of this team. We brought speed to the racetrack again, Penske was fast last week,' Bianchi said via Dirty Mo Media on YouTube. (30.29).

"I feel confident in the 22 team, where they could go to IOWA next week, a brand new racetrack no one's raced on it in the Cup Series before and a repave and all of these unknown. They could go to IOWA next week and win and I wouldn't be shocked at all. Them winning a race doesn't surprise me at all over the next 10 weeks," the insider added. (31.02)

Joey Logano outlines his Sonoma polesitter run after claiming the front spot after thirteen years

After setting the fastest pace of 97.771 mph on the 1.99-mile road course circuit, Joey Logano's tally of poles reads 31. The Team Penske driver has set the field on a road course three times during his career and two at the Wine Country.

However, despite his blistering fast lap at Sonoma, the pole position didn't come easy as 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick also showcased high-speed action on the asphalt. But the #45 Toyota fielded by the Californian fell shy by a minuscule margin of 0.083 seconds over Joey Logano.

As a result, the #22 Ford driver bagged the front spot at the venue after a thirteen-year-long hiatus since 2011. Before kicking off his Cup Series run at Sonoma, Logano spoke about his qualifying run at the presser and highlighted being on a "ragged edge" for the entirety.

"We got ourselves a pole on a road course. It was an intense lap out there. You’re just on a ragged edge the whole time," the Team Penske driver said via motorsport.com

Logano has one race win this season. But since the All-Star Race win doesn't account for the regular season points, the #22 Ford must be placed at the pinnacle spot at least once for entry in the playoffs.