By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
As the NASCAR season enters its second quarter this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, Joey Logano would rate the first half of his season with a B.
In the first nine races of the season, Logano has collected one win, five top-five and 6 top-10. Since the green flag flew at Daytona, the 2019 season has been dominated by Team Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing.
With only one win in the first quarter, the veteran driver has been in contention to win more races. At Atlanta, the team had to come back down pit road on the last run to fix a loose wheel. At California, Logano knew he wasn’t fast enough for the race win. At Bristol and Richmond, the pit road strategy did not play in his favor.
“I think we came out of the gates strong,” Logano said. “The car has been fast. There are a lot of if’s, and’s and buts through the first quarter of the season where I feel like we were in position to win and didn’t capitalize. For me, I guess that only gives you a B.”
Despite having the speed, Logano feels like he has to capitalize on that speed to get the victories. Despite the Playoffs being 17 races away, Logano knows that the team will clean up their mistakes.
“We have a long way until the playoffs start and I am confident we will clean that stuff up and get to that point. It is all about maintaining the speed that we have right now,” he said. “The biggest piece is the speed the Penske and Gibbs cars have; it will be harder and harder to maintain that gap that we’ve got. We have to work hard to maintain that as long as possible.”
The second quarter begins at Talladega Superspeedway Sunday in the GEICO 500.