Despite Locking Himself Into Playoffs, Joey Logano Still Lacks Speed
5 months agoWhile Joey Logano's shock Nashville victory locked him into the playoffs, he is continuing to have arguably his most mediocre season at Team Penske to date and don't expect that to change just because he won last Sunday. Logano's speed percentile in the Cup Series currently ranks 15th at 59.77%, which is substantially slower than his next-worst season as a Penske driver (68.87% in 2017 when he failed to make the playoffs). Although he did qualify ninth and finish eighth in last year's Chicago Street Race, his sudden decline in speed is already affecting him this weekend as his 32nd-place qualifying run is his second-worst of the season. From that starting position, Logano likely needs to benefit from an aggressive strategy play. Since road courses tend to be more strategy-dependent and his crew chief Paul Wolfe just delivered him a strategy win, it's certainly a very real possibility.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference