| The Daytona Beach News-Journal
The NASCAR Cup Series has started its quick stretch run to the finish line. Only three races are left, and there is plenty of unfinished business.
Joey Logano locked up a Championship Round spot with his win at Kansas, which rippled through the playoff standings. Logano was fifth in points going in and now jumps to the head of the line.
Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin are way ahead in points, which means the other five drivers almost have to win to make Round 4.
Brad Keselowski is on the right side of the cut line, eight points ahead of fifth-place Chase Elliott.
Harvick, Hamlin and Logano have all scored wins at Texas. There are other drivers not in the playoffs with their own agendas.
On to the Lone Star State . . .
FIRST GEAR: In a stark illustration of how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected NASCAR competitors, look no further than Joey Logano’s Cup Series wins this season.
Logano won twice in NASCAR’s first four races then the series shut down because of the pandemic.
The 30-year-old driver won at Las Vegas on Feb. 23 then at Phoenix on March 8 and then everything stopped cold in its tracks.
The NASCAR Cup Series got back to racing on May 17 and Logano went winless until Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway, or a span of 224 days.
“It’s been an amazing challenge, if I’m being honest with you,” Logano said. “The beginning of the year with practice, we were able to get to know each other, get to know what I needed with the car, and work on it during practice. COVID started. Coming back with no practice, we started getting our butts handed to us pretty hard.”
SECOND GEAR: The two drivers to watch as the season winds down are Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch.
Johnson wants to end his illustrious Cup Series career with a win in his final season of full-time competition.
Right now, he is sitting on 83 career wins to go with those seven Cup Series championships.
Busch desperately wants to keep his season-to-season win streak alive. He has won at least one race every year since 2005.
THIRD GEAR: NASCAR Silly Season is winding down. As of this writing, no driver has been named to fill the No. 14 Ford seat of departing Clint Bowyer. Richard Petty Motorsports is still shopping for a 2021 driver.
Meanwhile Kyle Larson, who seems to win everything he enters in dirt-track racing these days, has applied for NASCAR reinstatement, and talented Erik Jones continues to work the phones.
FOURTH GEAR: Chase Elliott suffered an odd setback at Kansas when his two-way radio system went haywire when the race started.
“They could hear me, I just couldn’t hear them once we went green,” said Elliott, who finished sixth. “Once we kind of had the situation understood, that they could hear me and I just couldn’t hear them, that helped, obviously.”
