Column By: HOLLY CAIN / NASCAR – WATKINS GLEN, NY – The season’s first Playoff race winner, Logano said Friday from Watkins Glen that the best part of claiming the win at the Atlanta Playoff opener was the ability now for his No. 22 Team Penske to start looking ahead to Round 2.
But perhaps the biggest lift the 34-year-old two-time series champ and his team got was the affirmation that despite a slow start to the season, they are where they need to be now and championship-focused.
Although Logano won pole position at two of the season’s first three races, he had only three top-10 finishes in the opening 14 races and didn’t win a trophy until June 30 – the 19th race – at Nashville. He had only two more top-10 finishes in the seven races afterward leading into the Playoffs.
“We’ve been here before where we’ve not had the best regular season, and then the Playoffs start, and you’re like, where did all that come from?” said Logano, who won at Watkins Glen in 2015. “It happens a lot. So, I’d say we’ve always felt pretty confident that we can go win the championship on any year no matter how you get into playoffs.
“You hear a lot of drivers say you just got to stay in it, survive and advance. That’s important to keep in mind because if you can survive long enough — and we talked about how close the field is these days — you have a couple good races and boom you’re in the next round. You have another good race where you win one and next thing you know you’re in a Championship Four and you’ve got a shot to win this whole thing.
“So, it doesn’t take much to be to go from mediocre through the regular season to being a threat to win the championship,” he added. “It’s the smallest little detail. So, to ever think you’re out of it is kind of crazy to think.”
Hamlin was among the regular season championship leaders until a late season points penalty and frustrating finish on track to conclude the regular season relegated him to a sixth place in the championship standings entering the 10-race Playoff.
Last week’s Playoff opener at Atlanta didn’t boost his standings any. Calling a unique strategy where he stayed toward the rear of the field to avoid the typical multi-car accidents up front did not work out as Hamlin had hoped. Ultimately he ended up in a wreck and finished 24th.
He shows up this week in New York with two races remaining in this opening Playoff Round ranked 11th – only two-points to the good with 12 of the 16 Playoff drivers advancing to Round 2 following the Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway race in two weeks.
“Certainly, I think if I had to do it over again, I would have been more aggressive [at Atlanta] and just taken the consequences of whatever that might have been,” Hamlin said Saturday. “But truthfully, I did not feel comfortable in the car until 50 [laps] to go and everyone in front of me was three-by-three and there was nowhere to go. It was just bad timing all the way around.
And, he added of the situation, “Certainly, I don’t love where I’m at. That’s a given. But I still think if I just do the best I can tomorrow and do the best I can at Bristol, it still will work itself out. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. My number one goal is getting to a win total and I’ve got plenty of races to do that. I’m gonna try to win at least two races in these Playoffs and hopefully they count.”
Juan Pablo Montoya will be making his first NASCAR Cup Series start in 10 years. The 48-year-old IndyCar champion, multi-time Formula One race winner and NASCAR standout last competed in a NASCAR Cup Series race in 2014 making a pair of starts for Team Penske. He won at Watkins Glen in 2010 – one of two NASCAR Cup Series career victories.
Montoya has spent much of the last few years travelling the world with his 19-year-old son Sebastien who is competing in the FIA Formula 3 championship and is part of the prestigious Red Bull Junior Team. He said this weekend’s ride was a result of a phone conversation early this year with 23XI Racing President Steve Lauletta, who Montoya worked with at Chip Ganassi Racing during his career.
Although Montoya was given some practice laps at Virginia International Raceway in preparation for Sunday’s race, Montoya was careful not to set specific expectations for the weekend – in a race against only a handful of drivers he’s competed alongside before. He did, however, insist he would race hard – as he always has – and will need to starting 34th on the grid.
“I want to have a clean day, a good day, and try to be competitive,” Montoya said. “If someone is quicker, they are quicker – if you are quicker, you are going to try to go by. Try to keep it as simple as possible, but you never know. If everybody races the hell out of you, then you are going to race the hell out of everybody. I have no issues with that either.”
Montoya, who has kept busy competing in the World Endurance Challenge (WEC) and IMSA series, did at least keep a return appearance on the table.
“Let’s do this weekend and then we will see,” he said. “Honestly, I probably some day – if someone comes to me one day and asks me if I want to do a one-off, I would probably say yes, but it is Saturday morning, so we will see.”
Connor Zilisch, 17, will be making his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut Saturday at Wakins Glen driving the No. 88 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports, where he will race fulltime in 2025. And he wasted no time showing what makes him such a highly-regarded talent – earning a dominating win in Friday’s ARCA Menards Series race before leading Xfinity Series practice and ultimately claiming the pole position for Saturday afternoon’s Xfinity race.
“Definitely a day to enjoy. … just looking forward to making the most it,” said Zilisch, who led all but one lap in the ARCA race and won by more than 12-seconds for his fifth victory in six series races.
“I’ve tried to not to set any expectations for myself and just go out and do what I know I can do, run at 80, 90 percent, run all the laps and just gain experience,” Zilisch said, “There’s so many guys that I’ll be able to learn from out there.
“I’ve prepared so much for this. Josh Wise told me this week ‘prepare like your life depends on it and compete like it doesn’t matter’ and that’s how I’m kind of going into today.”
