'I don’t feel like so much of a long shot anymore' - Logano right in the mix after Phoenix

Joey Logano left Phoenix Raceway still in contention to win a fourth NASCAR Cup Series championship and made sure everyone knew it.

“I felt like we were a long shot before this, but still could do it,” Logano said after finishing sixth. “I don’t feel like so much of a long shot anymore.”

Logano swept the stages in Sunday’s race and led 84 laps. It was one short of the race-high number of laps Christopher Bell led. Most importantly, the Team Penske driver scored the second-most points on the day (51).

“A bittersweet day,” said Logano. “We had a good car and led a bunch of laps, [had] a couple of stage wins, and we cut the gap. I think we’re 44 points out now. So, if you looked at that coming into the day, you’d probably say we’d take it and move on. But we had an opportunity to win, and you start to think about those extra 20 that are sitting out there.

“So, a bit of a missed opportunity there. But overall, a solid day, and we’re much more in the hunt than we were coming into it.”

The gap is indeed 44 points between Logano and championship leader Kyle Larson, who failed to finish the race following a blown tire. It shrank from the 92-point deficit the three-time champion faced entering the weekend. Logano, however, remains sixth in the standings.

“We have good tracks coming up,” Logano said. “Talladega is great – it can go either way, though. We’ve seen that go either way. Martinsville has been a great track as well. We have the opportunity to score a bunch of points here and close that gap even more.

“The goal is just to be in the hunt when you get to Miami, and if we can be somewhat close and keep the pressure on them. Teams crack during this time of year. We’ve seen it over and over again. We’ve seen it a lot today. So, we just have to keep the pressure on them.”

Logano has two wins at Talladega Superspeedway, where the series heads this weekend. He has one win at Martinsville Speedway and a win at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The latter came the same year Logano won his first championship.