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At the beginning of summer, the outlook for the No. 22 Team Penske Ford Mustang camp appeared grim, with Joey Logano down in 20th in the points standings, still without a win and with only two top-five finishes to his name. But two short-track races under the lights have reignited the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, who has now climbed to ninth in points after winning at Richmond on Saturday night.

Logano started the race from 10th and led 95 laps, the second-highest total in the field, on his way to claiming his second victory of the season. His turnaround began three weeks ago at North Wilkesboro, where he became the first Cup Series driver since Jeff Gordon in 1996 to win a points race there.

That result gave him momentum, and Logano followed it up with a third-place finish in the Brickyard 400. Now, two weeks on, he finds himself comfortably inside the top 16 as he pushes to secure a playoff berth and continue his run of winning championships in even-numbered years.

Logano beat Chase Briscoe to the chequered flag. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver had started on the outside of the front row alongside Logano’s Penske team-mate Ryan Blaney, swept both stages, and led 171 of the 320 laps.

With 39 laps remaining, Logano was reeling Briscoe in on slightly fresher tyres. James Small, Briscoe’s crew chief, brought his driver in to pit as soon as Logano moved past for the lead, but Logano and Paul Wolfe read the move perfectly and dived into pit lane on the very same lap.

On the way into pit lane, Briscoe locked his front brakes, and in the end Logano emerged ahead after the pit stop phase.

Both drivers rejoined the race behind Christopher Bell and quickly closed him down, with Logano making the overtake with 22 laps to go and Briscoe moving past one lap later.

Briscoe had a few attempts at challenging Logano but never quite got into a position to complete the pass, and Logano eventually took the win by 0.392.

“We’ve got a strong team, no doubt,” Logano told USA Sports. “Obviously, Paul made some great calls there. Paul did a good job, but the 19 was better than us on that final run. So yes, I was just trying to manage the tyres and keep that gap. And yes, it was a fun back-and-forth battle. There was some enjoyable strategy playing out as well with different approaches out there. It’s a typical Richmond race. So it’s pretty cool to get a win here.”

Austin Cindric delivered a much-needed third-place finish after coming into the race occupying the final spot in The Chase, and he moved up one place to give himself a little more breathing room.

His rise to 15th means the cutline now sits between Shane van Gisbergen and Ryan Preece. Preece came into the race 17th and remained there, finishing four positions behind van Gisbergen and seeing the gap between them stretch to more than 50 points.

Kyle Larson finished sixth as Hendrick Motorsports placed all of its cars inside the top 10, a welcome response after last week. As soon as Larson returned to his trailer, he was seen sprinting away to catch a private flight to Pella, Iowa, hoping to reach Knoxville Raceway in time to start from pole in the A-Main of the rain-delayed Knoxville Nationals.