Joey Logano ends historic skid for a defending Cup champ
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Joey Logano ended a historic skid for a defending NASCAR Cup Series champion with his first top-10 finish of the 2025 season.
Coming into Sunday’s Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway, Logano hadn’t scored a top-10 finish in any of the first six Cup races of 2025 — the longest a defending Cup champion has gone to start a season without a top-10 finish.
The streak looked to end as Logano won the first stage, on lap 80, on a strategy call to stay out. That tied him with Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney and then Denny Hamlin for the most stage wins this season so far (2).
Logano led a total of 13 laps before pitting and falling to 28th to start the second stage. In the first 31 green-flag laps of the stage, he jumped to 17th. Under caution, crew chief Paul Wolfe made a two-tire gamble that boosted them to 10th but caused them to fall out of the top-10 by the time the second stage ended on lap 180.
Again, as another stage began, it didn’t take Logano to get back to the front. As the final stage went green on lap 194, he was eighth. He maintained a top-10 spot until lap when Chase Briscoe fumbled the entry to turn three, slid up the track and spun Logano.
Logano fell back to 25th when the race restarted with 75 laps to go. Luckily, he had four, much fresher tires and a drive to get back to the front that wielded him to eighth at the checkered flag.
Finally got a top 10 on the year. I mean, sick of hearing all those things, so at least we got a top ten, but it’s a little bittersweet,” Logano said on pit road. “Our pit stops were really good today, and we were doing a good job on pit road. Maybe we could have gotten up there and mixed it up with them, but it’s just another race we had to recover.”
Logano was frustrated with Ross Chastain.
“He keeps racing like a jacka-s every week and I keep paying the price. I can’t keep paying the price,” Logano said.
Despite not scoring a top-10 finish this season until Sunday, Logano is ninth in points. He is 49 points above the playoff cutline and 60 points behind points leader William Byron.
Next up is Darlington Raceway. Last year, Logano finished 21st in the spring race and eighth in the fall. He won the spring race from the pole in 2022.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com