Logano Dominates In First Points Race at North Wilkesboro Since 96

Back in 2020, Anthony Greer and I made an impromptu visit to Wilkes County, North Carolina to see an old track we had heard fans tell the legends of for as long as we had been fans of the sport. Through miles of winding two-lane roads in the middle of nowhere, we saw a ghastly sight — like a ghost ship appearing on the horizon on a foggy night at sea. 

What we saw could only be described as pitiful. NASCAR’s oldest track had been reduced to a dilapidated crumbling shell of a place that looked like time had forgotten. Grandstands with rusty chairback seats. Concrete and asphalt so discolored with so many cracks and weeds in them that it was hard to believe any spectators or cars had ever touched them. Buildings with roofs caving in and whole window panes missing or broken. 

It was a place that we left feeling that not only was the track’s heyday long past, but also that it had little to no hope of hosting stock car racing ever again barring a miracle. Thankfully, a miracle did happen, and in May of 2023, I returned to the track, beholding a sight I could not believe. 

The track these days looks simultaneously brand new and stuck in the 1950s and with it comes a renewed interest from both the passionate fans that had long clamored for its resurrection and a whole new generation of younger fans alike. That fervor was made even stronger with the success of three straight All Star Races from ‘23-‘25 — an achievement for the facility that did not go unnoticed by the sport’s powers that be. 

At the release of the schedule last year,  NWS got the news that they wouldn’t host the annual All Star exhibition a fourth time. Instead, their 2026 race date would feel different. For the first time in the 10,885 days since Jeff Gordon won the last points race here in September of 1996, a NASCAR Cup Series event at North Wilkesboro Speedway was going to count. Not only that, but a sellout crowd of fans coming from all fifty states and eight different countries would get to share in the historic moment. 

The weekend wasn’t without its weather concerns. Rain cancelled qualifying for the main event — the Window World 450, meaning the field would be set by the metric — giving the pole to Ryan Blaney, who won a week ago at Atlanta, joined on the front row by Ty Gibbs. 

To add another caveat to the lack of qualifying, teams had very little practice time once the track was dried in order to get a feel for the way these cars would run, which would be a critical help with this being the first time the Cup Series has run here in the new short/flat track package — more horsepower, less rear diffuser, softer tires, and softer bumpers. 

The early laps made one thing clear — the track races far differently, not just because of the aero package and body changes, but also because of having a full 37 car field. The All Star Races all featured a limited field composed almost entirely of active past winners. That combined with the package made for a lot of single file riding. That was not the case through the first forty laps. 

Blaney abandoned the pole position ahead of the restart due to a power steering issue that had to be repaired, giving Gibbs the early lead that he held until after the first caution, which came about at lap 40 when John Hunter Nemechek got spun around in turn two after getting run into the wall by Zane Smith. While most of the field pitted under that yellow, Denny Hamlin took an early gamble and stayed out, inheriting the lead when the green went back in the air. 

Of note, during that caution, the run of tough luck for both Connor Zilisch and Kyle Larson continued when they made contact on pit road. Larson complained of damage to his steering afterwards, but continued to run for points.

An unexpected leader emerged as Hamlin’s older tires began to drop off in Shane Van Gisbergen, who placed third in the Craftsman Truck Series race on Saturday afternoon. The noted road course aficionado led the bulk of rge laps in the opening stage, crossing the line in the point 28 times. But, in the end, it was Gibbs that stole the stage win from him, gaining the edge with a run on the outside off turn four to take the green and white checkered flag by half a carlength. 

The celebration did not last long for the 54 team. After winning the race off pit road during the stage break caution, Gibbs was penalized for speeding and had to serve a pass through that would make for a long uphill climb back to the front. 

The second stage began with a battle between Van Gisbergen and Joey Logano., which saw SVG reclaim the lead early on. But, Logano showed to have good long run speed, eventually usurping the 97 at lap 117. Things calmed down from there until chaos struck during the next green flag pit stop cycle. After several cars came down including Chase Elliott, who had run in the top five for most of the race up to that point, Alex Bowman made a blunder coming off turn two trying to come to pit road himself. 

He was running the top line and came down in traffic, cutting across the nose of Tyler Reddick. The contact spun Bowman around and caused steering damage to Reddick. But the untimely caution also landed all of those leaders that had come in already off the lead lap. At the time of the yellow, just 12 were scored as not being at least a lap down. 

The green came back out at lap 190, but six circuits later Josh Berry got turned hard into the wall in turn four thanks to contact from Christopher Bell, who got loose running three wide in the middle and came up the track into the 21. Once the green flew again at lap 205, things went clean to the end of the stage with Logano dominating his way to the critical 10 points. 

Logano also cruised through the final stage, which in typical North Wilkesboro fashion, was all one long green flag run. Hamlin decided to take another gamble during the final pit stop cycle, coming down a whole lap before Logano. But, as a credit to the 22 crew, they got him back out ahead of the 11. That four-tire ‘money stop’ ultimately helped Logano hold off Hamlin in lapped traffic over the final ninety laps and cruise to the win once he cycled back to the lead with 67 to go. 

Logano went on to defeat Hamlin by 0.085 seconds, having led 160 of the 450 laps. Putting it simply, it was an old-school butt kicking on an only-school track in a race with an old-school feel in which nearly three quarters of the field did not finish on the lead lap. But, was it a potential turning point in what has been an underwhelming season for Logano and the 22 team? 

“It has been different for sure with all the DNFs and struggles we have had”, said crew chief Paul Wolfe. “When you get this far into the season and look where guys are in the points standings, it’s usually about where they have typically been running. Unfortunately for us, we have been running 16th-18th right where we were in the standings. That said, are we a contender for the championship {now that we have a win}? I don’t know. Short tracks are our strength. But, we have a lot of work to do to get the other style tracks to where they need to be.” 

Logano echoed that sentiment in his post race comments. 

“Finally!”, Joey said with a chuckle. “It has been a tough year, no doubt. Any time you lack speed, you start to question a lot of things around you. Everything from what the process is to what it is that you are doing yourself. You just want to know why there’s no speed. Ultimately it felt good to get our Mustang back out front, lead a bunch of laps, and win this thing. It was a good momentum swing, it was a huge points day for us. We are not in a safe place yet and we are not where we need to be, but it was huge to get us back on the other side of the cutline.” 

This victory extends a streak of winning at least one race every season dating back to 2012 for Logano, which with the way the season was going, may have felt in jeopardy with over half the schedule completed. 

“It was in the back of my mind”, said Logano. “I knew it. You start to wonder ‘Am I going to have a chance this year to capitalize on one?’. We have had some fast cars but I have not been able to get out front. Today, as soon as the race started and I was able to pass a bunch of cars I thought ‘I have something here.’ I thought it had potential yesterday in practice even though we were really loose. But I felt if we dialed it in, we could be really good. But, it has been so long since we have been really good. We did dial it in and were able to get track position early in the race. We started 11th — furthest back I have started here. It goes to show how strong a car we had.” 

For sure, the win was not only a relief but also a huge confidence booster for a team that had struggled all season. 

“Those Mondays after a bad race, you start looking inward first before anything else”, said Logano with sincerity. “You have very real conversations with yourself. We are all human. We can come here and BS all we want about how confident we are. But, we just have to keep fighting and grinding away; keep going, keep running. Eventually you start to see some progress. It just takes a while. Today we saw some progress.” 

Aside from Logano and Hamlin, Chase Briscoe placed third, Gibbs ended up fourth, and Van Gisbergen rounded out the top five. Bubba Wallace was sixth, Brad Keselowski seventh, Todd Gilliland eighth (earning him the victory over Elliott to advance to the in-season tournament championship), Daniel Suárez ninth, and Ryan Preece tenth. 

Blaney ended up P11 — advancing him to the championship in the tournament over Christopher Bell, William Byron was 12th, Carson Hocevar 13th, and Kyle Larson finished 15th. Other notable finishes include Elliott, who was unable to get back on the lead lap and finished three down in 17th. Bell brought his car across the line in 19th, also three laps down while Reddick brought the 45 home five laps off the pace in 30th. 

All in all, North Wilkesboro’s triumphant return to points racing was another success to check off, and time will tell if once again, NASCAR’s brass took note to bring it back next year. But, with the weekend in Wilkes in the books, the season rolls on next week from the World-Famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway with one of NASCAR’s crown jewel events — the Brickyard 400. The green flag drops at 2:00 PM on TNT.