By Noah Poser, Staff Writer
On Aug. 9, 2015, a 25-year-old Joey Logano took the checkered flag at Watkins Glen for the 10th win of his NASCAR Cup Series career, his first coming on a road course.
In the 10 years since, Logano has gone on to establish himself as a future Hall of Famer. He’s become a three-time champion, has racked up 37 career victories, and won races on 20 different tracks in the Cup Series.
But as he prepares for his third start at the Chicago Street Course, Logano is approaching an unwelcomed anniversary of sorts, as it will soon have been a full decade since his victory at Watkins Glen, his last Cup Series win on a road or street course.
And no matter the fact he’s had plenty of success elsewhere throughout his career, he continues to be motivated to be even better, both on road courses and as a racecar driver overall.
“I honestly feel like I have to prove myself every day,” Logano said. “I always say what you did yesterday is yesterday, so tell me what you’re gonna do tomorrow because that’s the important stuff.”
He continued.
“I’ve had a great career with a lot of great accomplishments and a lot of really cool moments. But have I hit all the markers that I set out to hit? No I haven’t. So I still got plenty to go out there and achieve for sure.”
Throughout his Cup Series career, Logano has a built up a wealth of experience in the discipline of road and street course racing, having made 52 road and street course starts up to this point. In those races, he has the one win at Watkins Glen to go along with 12 top fives and 23 top 10 finishes.
He’s led for a total of 147 laps at these types of circuits and when it comes to the course he’s competing at this weekend, he has a career-best finish of eighth at the Chicago Street Course coming in the inaugural race in 2023.
On the surface, the numbers for Logano outside of the ovals aren’t too bad in comparison to those of many of the guys he consistently is racing against.
So what is it that has held Logano back from capturing that elusive second win on the twisting lefts and rights of the road courses making up the current NASCAR schedule?
In the years since Logano’s triumph at the Glen, NASCAR’s relationship with road racing has evolved dramatically. When his career began, there was consistently only two road courses on the Cup Series schedule year after year in Watkins Glen and Sonoma.
This season, the schedule features six such tracks.
And with more drivers than ever capable of winning on a road course, including competitors like Shane van Gisbergen who have come over from other racing disciplines, it’s simply become a tougher ask than ever before to win on these particular courses.
To put it simply…
“We’re not road racers,” Logano said, referring to himself and the majority of his competitors. “There’s only one guy out there who really is, so all of us are in a way playing catch up.”
That one guy Logano was referring to is of course, van Gisbergen, who won the inaugural Chicago Street Race in his NASCAR debut and has won the past two Xfinity Series races at the track as well, including the Xfinity Series race earlier this weekend.
And with more road racing aces rising through the NASCAR ranks all the time nowadays, such as Connor Zilisch, who finished second to van Gisbergen in the Xfinity Series race, it’ll only become harder for Logano and his oval-focused competitors to pad their road course stats.
But when it comes to ending his winless drought on the road course, preferably before it officially reaches a decade next month, Logano doesn’t need any additional motivation, saying the lone thing he has to remember is something he tells himself often.
“You’re only as good as your last race.”