What Happened?
Joey Logano put on a vintage performance, dominating the first NASCAR Cup Series points race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in 30 years to get his first win of the season.
Denny Hamlin got close to Logano, but he could not get around him and had to settle for second. Chase Briscoe finished third, Ty Gibbs finished fourth and Shane van Gisbergen rounded out the top five.
Bubba Wallace was the last car on the lead lap in sixth. Brad Keselowski, Todd Gilliland, Daniel Suarez and Ryan Preece finished seventh through 10th, respectively.
What Really Happened?
Logano led a career-high 323 laps on Sunday night (July 19) to put himself in victory lane and the right side of the Chase bubble.
He is now 15th in the standings, 49 points above the cut line. Looking at the upcoming schedule, this performance at North Wilkesboro might be the spark to get Logano’s season back on track.
We’ve seen this story before with the No. 22 team, especially in the Next Gen era. Logano and crew chief Paul Wolfe struggle out of the gate, but then start rattling off wins late in the season, always seeming to come at the right times.
It’s going to be harder for them to pull off an underdog run now with the elimination of “win and advance” in the playoffs, but I could see a world where Logano and his team go into The Chase seeded in the top 10.
As for the racing product, North Wilkesboro’s return to the schedule (for a points race) was as old school as it gets.
Long green flag runs, plus a caution the middle of a pit cycle during the second stage, created a perfect storm that resulted in only six cars finishing on the lead lap. It was fitting for this to come at North Wilkesboro, because after all, the 0.625-mile short track is the site of the last Cup Series race to end with the entire field lapped, which occurred back in 1994, courtesy of Geoff Bodine.
I thought it was a good race but nothing too memorable, and that’s OK. Not every race has to be a classic.
If this wasn’t a return race, it would just be another typical NASCAR short track race, but I did enjoy the battle between Logano and Hamlin as they navigated through lapped traffic during the final run.
Once again, this race took place on a Sunday night, and unlike last week, Mother Nature was kind to NASCAR this weekend. The Cup race went on as scheduled without delay.
Green flag runs allowed this race to wrap up just before hitting the three-hour mark. The race did seem to drag on at times. I was surprised the race was 450 laps since most short track races run 400 laps or below.
Even before the track sat dormant until this decade, North Wilkesboro races were 50 laps shorter in an age where the races were usually longer. Next year, I think the perfect range for the race should be in the 350 to 400-lap range.
Who Stood Out?
van Gisbergen continued to show flashes of race-winning speed on ovals, as he led 49 laps tonight and nearly won the opening stage, getting edged out by Gibbs at the line.
The New Zealander went on to finish fifth, and he now has a 54-point advantage on the Chase cut line. It has been an impressive run for van Gisbergen to continue to hold a Chase spot when many expected him to drop out with no road courses remaining on the schedule this season.
Gilliland nabbed a top 10 finish as well, advancing him into the In-Season Challenge final at Indianapolis Motor Speedway against Ryan Blaney. Gilliland’s opponent, Chase Elliott, ran into some bad luck after getting trapped a lap down when a caution flew during a green flag pit stop cycle.
It was Gilliland’s second top-10 finish of the season after he earned a sixth-place run at Bristol Motor Speedway earlier this year. The result comes off an extension for Gilliland at Front Row Motorsports, which was announced earlier this week.
Who Fell Flat?
Many contenders had to settle for mediocre runs tonight, including Alex Bowman and Tyler Reddick after they got together on the backstretch when Bowman cut down in front of Reddick while trying to get to pit road.
Reddick finished 30th, continuing his rough summer, while all four Hendrick Motorsports cars finished off the lead lap.
Christopher Bell won the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro last season and was seen as one of the favorites going into the night after a strong practice session on Saturday night.
However, he also did not get the result that he and his team wanted as he came home in 19th, three laps down.
Paint Scheme of the Race
Team Penske continued to celebrate the organization’s 60th anniversary with another tribute scheme, this time paying homage to Rusty Wallace.
Wallace won at North Wilkesboro three times in his Cup Series career, including a sweep at the track during his 10-win 1993 campaign.
Wallace’s Miller Genuine Draft car that went to victory lane many times in his career was given the nickname “Midnight,” and it returned to the track on Sunday night on Austin Cindric‘s No. 2 Team Penske Ford.
It worked out perfectly since Wallace was already at the track as the grand marshal of the event.
Cindric finished the race in 14th, two laps down.
What’s Next?
The Cup Series will head to the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway next Sunday (July 26) for the Brickyard 400.
This will be the final race of the In-Season Challenge and the 22nd race of the Cup Series season.
Coverage will begin at 2 p.m. ET, and the event will be the last broadcasted race on TNT for the 2026 season. Wallace is the defending winner of the event.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.
One race does not make a champion,but last week writers were saying Logano and Wolfe needed to part company . The 48s bone head move in to the pits didn’t help his teammates any. Finally the crew chief for the 5 (who I think is arrogant) needs to do a better job of getting Larsons out of the pits.
Seeing as Logano won the last example of Brian’s product I guess he is the front runner for the title.
450 laps was great. I think all Cup races should be 300+ miles, as O’Reilly races are usually 200-300 miles. I’m glad this race wasn’t a wreck fest like Bowman Grey.
Lastly, weather did play a part, as there was a short delay for lightning. But thankfully the race was incident-free.
Nascar is pretty lucky there was only 1 caution for cause last night. Even then the race was 3 hours. If we had a bunch or wrecks or any red flag periods, at 450 laps, this race could have easily been 4 hours or more.
Certainly wasn’t a classic, but I blame TNT for that. It would be hard for me to believe that there were no good battles going on. But I honestly think the truck was lost when more of the field kept getting lapped. They didn’t know which battles were for position so they just stuck to the front of the field.
I think given how they didn’t have qualifying and much practice, as well as no notes to go by, I think teams didn’t get too aggressive on setups. I do hope this race stays on the schedule a few more years so that these teams can figure it out and if so, I think they will put on a better race in the future.
Last week; Maybe Logano and Wolf should part ways.
This week: The 22 teams is a threat for the championship.
The wind must be blowing in a different direction today.