Logano is on to the next round

The driver wins at Charlotte and earns automatic berth into third round of Chase.

CONCORD, N.C. — Joey Logano has been to Victory Lane four times this season, and all four trips required him to beat reigning Sprint Cup champion Kevin Harvick.

The latest win, Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, was a critical and confidence-building victory. He again shrugged off Harvick to earn an automatic berth into the third round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

Harvick, who has 11 secondplace finishes this season, has been runner-up to Logano three times. Harvick finished third in Logano’s win at Watkins Glen, where Harvick ran out of gas while leading on the last lap.

“When you can beat [Harvick] any day, any time, that’s a big deal for us,” team owner Roger Penske said. “I think that it was good that we could at least be on a level playing field with him today.”

Harvick led 581 laps in the opening round of the Chase and routed the field last week at Dover to advance into the second round. But he never made it to the front at Charlotte, the opening race of the second round of NASCAR’s playoffs, as Logano led 227 of the 334 laps.

Now Logano, who made it to the finale last season, doesn’t have to worry about this daunting second round of the Chase. The series races next week at Kansas and then four drivers will be eliminated Oct. 25 at Talladega.

“It helps us sleep here the next couple of weeks,” Logano said. “This helps us recharge our batteries and get ready for the next round.”

He feels good right now, but isn’t crowing about his head-tohead success this season with Harvick.

“I think there’s a lot of fast race cars out there right now,” Logano said. “Last week, obviously, [Harvick] was dominant. This week we had a really fast car. Next week, who knows? You can’t rely on anything.”

Harvick, who didn’t lead a lap of a race that was scheduled for Saturday night but pushed to Sunday afternoon because of rain, was satisfied with second after struggling all weekend.

“If those are the off days, we’ll be just fine,” Harvick said.

Martin Truex Jr. finished third — his career-best eighth top-five of the season — but wasn’t breathing any easier about his Chase hopes.

“Logano is the only one who is going to sleep the next few weeks,” Truex said. “We still think we need to win next week.”

The top six finishers were Chase drivers as Denny Hamlin finished fourth and was followed by Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards.

Austin Dillon, who is not racing for the title, was seventh. Jeff Gordon, making the final start of his career at Charlotte, struggled for the first half of the race but salvaged an eighth-place finish.

Logano teammate Brad Keselowski staved off a loose wheel over the closing laps as Chase drivers took eight of the top nine spots.

Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch finished 42nd and 20th, respectively, and are now in the bottom four of the Chase standings.