NASCAR Cup

Joey Logano is approaching rarefied air. With last Sunday’s victory at Talladega Superspeedway, he’s already the first driver ever to sweep all three races in a single round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

At NASCAR Sprint Cup racing’s shortest track, Joey Logano’s torrid run just got longer. The winner of three straight races—constituting a sweep of the Contender Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup—Logano toured .526-mile Martinsville Speedway in 19.215 seconds (98.548 mph) in the final round of Friday’s knockout qualifying session.

Jeff Gordon has the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field exactly where he wants it. Gritting his way into NASCAR’s playoffs without a win, Gordon has picked up momentum by notching three consecutive top 10s in the Contender Round to advance to the eight-driver Eliminator Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

If something unexpected is going to happen at a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, rest assured it will happen at Talladega. After an initial green-white-checkered restart was waved off due to an accident, Joey Logano was inches ahead of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. on the final green-white-checkered restart.

Kyle Busch rallied at Talladega and took advantage of others’ misfortunes to advance to the Chase’s Eliminator Round. But Busch suggested Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth, who was ousted from the Chase at Talladega, might still have a score to settle with Joey Logano.

NASCAR announced Monday agreements with 23 tracks to field NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races for the next five years. Additionally, 24 tracks will host NASCAR Xfinity Series races through 2020.

This wasn’t the storybook finish that fans of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. coveted. Earnhardt came into Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500 needing a victory to advance to the Eliminator Round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. As a six-time winner at Talladega Superspeedway, it was very much within the realm of possibility and something he sensed.

The effective end of Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway came moments after Kevin Harvick’s Chevrolet clipped Trevor Bayne’s Ford and ignited a multicar wreck in the tri-oval during the one attempt at a green-white-checkered-flag finish.

Joey Logano collected his third straight win to sweep all three races of the “Contender Round” of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in a wild controversial finish in Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

In last year’s first season of the elimination format in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Brad Keselowski came to Talladega with a singular purpose.He needed to win the race to advance to the Eliminator Round—and he did.