Monday, 6 June 2022

Joey Logano Draws Closer to Brad Keselowski on Historic List

The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford Mustang won his second Cup Series race of 2022 on June 5. It was Joey Logano’s 29th all-time — 27th for Team Penske — which moved him closer to Brad Keselowski on a historic list.

Team Penske drivers have combined to win 136 Cup Series races, per NASCAR, dating back to Mark Donohue’s trip to Victory Lane in 1973. Rusty Wallace has the most Cup Series wins for Team Penske at 37 while Keselowski is currently second at 34. Logano is now only seven wins behind his former teammate, and he will have the opportunity to track the RFK Racing driver-owner down.

Logano first reached Victory Lane for Team Penske during the 2013 season, his first with the organization. He won the pole for the August 18 race at Michigan International Speedway, and he led 51 total laps before holding off Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch. He celebrated in Victory Lane for the first time as the driver of the No. 22 Ford and kicked off a successful tenure with Team Penske.

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How Long Would it Take Logano to Reach 34 Wins?

Roger Penske

GettyRoger Penske (left) & Joey Logano (right) celebrate a Daytona 500 win.

Logano is only seven wins away from tying Keselowski’s mark on the Team Penske list, but will he achieve this feat? History indicates that he will. Though it will potentially take him multiple seasons.

Logano has 11 consecutive seasons with a win and seven with multiple trips to Victory Lane. His career-high for a single season is six wins in 2015. His second-best mark is five wins from the 2014 season. He has three other seasons with three wins each — 2016, 2018, and 2020.

If Logano continues his streak of achieving success in even-numbered years, he will likely add at least one more before the end of the 2022 season. This would move him to 28 wins with Team Penske and 30 overall. He would then sit just six wins shy of tying Keselowski and seven from passing him.

Based on Logano’s Cup Series history, the earliest he would tie Keselowski would be the 2024 season. Obviously, he could get hot and crank out another five or six-win season, but recent history indicates that he will win between one and three races in each of the next two seasons.


What About Logano’s Contract Situation?

Joey Logano

GettyJoey Logano is under contract through 2023.

Consistently contending for wins is the biggest hurdle standing between Logano and the opportunity to tie Keselowski on the Team Penske wins list. The other is his contract situation. Will he be a member of the team long enough to add seven more wins?

The Connecticut native is currently under contract through the 2023 season, which guarantees he will have at least one more year to pursue wins as a member of Team Penske. However, owner Roger Penske made it clear on May 26 after signing a massive extension with Equilon Enterprises LLC and Pennzoil-Quaker State Company that they have had discussions about keeping Logano around for much longer.

“We have an agreement with Joey through 2023,” Penske told FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass. “Obviously, he and I have talked about extending it. We wanted to get the Shell contract done, which we signed this past week. He and I are in good conversation about him and expect to announce his extension here shortly.”

Team Penske and Logano have not agreed to terms on a contract extension yet, but both sides have openly expressed a desire to continue working together. Following Logano’s latest win, an extension is even more likely before the end of the 2022 season.

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