By Matthew Thomerson/TheFourthTurn.com
NORTH WILKESBORO, NC – Joey Logano was dominant Sunday, winning the first points race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in 30 years.
The three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion seemed to be in a class of his own for much of the night during the Window World 450. After taking the lead on Lap 113, he never relinquished it outside of green-flag pit stops through the final two stages. Logano went on to win Stage 2 and led 323 total laps, a career-high total as he drove to his 38th win of his career.
“A win at this point anywhere would’ve sounded great,” Logano said. “But coming here to North Wilkesboro is awesome. I picked up a passenger on the backstretch (referencing his son riding with him in the car); we had some fun together, but what a great car, Paul Wolfe, what a great car he put together for us today.”
Denny Hamlin has not been shy about claiming North Wilkesboro as a track he has struggled at in the past, but he was the only driver remotely close to Logano all night. After starting seventh via the metric, Hamlin stayed around the top-five for much of the night and was able to stay with Logano through it all. Despite his best efforts late in the going, Hamlin was not quite able to make the lap traffic work to get to Logano and settled with another runner-up finish at the 0.625-mile oval.
“You just have to complement them (Joey Logano) on a great day and a great drive,” Hamlin said. “They were really good. There were a lot of times that I felt like my car was really close to where it needed to be; it was just a smidge off. Great battle. At least was able to keep them honest there, but he had a lot of speed and never gave up on the short run or the long run, so great job to our whole Progressive Toyota team for keeping us in the ballgame, but we will have to go regroup.”
Finishing in third was Chase Briscoe, who, while up and down lately, also has shown great speed in almost every race during this summer stretch. It looked to be Briscoe at one point, who could move into the second spot to chase down Logano, but ultimately rounded out the podium in third.
“Yeah, that last run was honestly the worst run of the race for us,” Briscoe said. “Up until that point, I’d always kinda catch the 11 and 22 the longer we ran. I thought at the end was going to be perfect for us, just didn’t have the pace or the balance. I was hoping we could catch a caution truthfully, just to kinda make an adjustment, I feel like we just got a little bit on the other side of it, but overall still a great day.”
Finishing fourth was Stage 1 winner Ty Gibbs, and Shane van Gisbergen grabbed another top-five on an oval in 2026. Bubba Wallace finished sixth, Brad Keselowski seventh, Todd Gilliland advanced to the final round of the In-season challenge in eighth, and Daniel Suarez and Ryan Preece round out the top-10.
Gilliland will face Ryan Blaney in the In-Season Challenge finale next weekend for a shot at $1 million.
The race featured five cautions for 43 laps. There were 16 lead changes among nine leaders, with Logano leading the most laps. The race ran 174 consecutive green-flag laps to end the race.
Up next for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Brickyard 400 presented by PPG Race Day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26. Coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET on TNT.
Photo Credit: Patricia McCormack/TheFourthTurn.com
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