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There are undoubtedly some holdouts who don’t want to concede that Joey Logano has already earned his place in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, an opinion exacerbated most recently by the incident with William Byron at Darlington.

We’ve got some bad news for those folks: You’ve got bigger issues in the interim. Namely, Logano might just earn his second Cup Series championship, giving him bragging rights for a year … and all but guaranteeing Hall of Fame enshrinement.

Joey Logano is sixth in the latest NASCAR Cup Series standings

Joey Logano laughs on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Enjoy Illinois 300 at WWT Raceway on June 4, 2022 in Madison, Illinois. | Jeff Curry/Getty Images
Joey Logano laughs on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Enjoy Illinois 300 at WWT Raceway on June 4, 2022 in Madison, Illinois. | Jeff Curry/Getty Images

Sixth place barely gets a competitor on the medals stand in many individual sports, but it’s a good place for Joey Logano to be 15 races into the NASCAR Cup Series season. Logano’s victory Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway was his second of the season, not even counting his triumph in the season-opening Busch Light Clash, a non-points race.

With his place in the postseason assured, Logano can focus on piling up additional playoff points that can help him transfer into the second and third rounds, then potentially the Championship 4.

And none of what we’re seeing from him should be a surprise. Logano has won multiple races in seven of the last nine seasons. In addition, he has finished in the top eight of the final standings nine times in the past 10 years.

Translation: Logano is here to stay in the 2022 championship race.

Rank Driver Points Race Wins Stage Wins Playoff Pts Top 5 Top 10
1 Chase Elliott 507 1 3 8 3 9
2 Kyle Busch 498 1 1 6 6 11
3 Ross Chastain 490 2 3 13 7 9
4 Ryan Blaney 479 0 4 4 5 7
5 Martin Truex Jr. 470 0 3 3 2 7
6 Joey Logano 467 2 1 11 5 7
7 Kyle Larson 444 1 1 6 6 8
8 Alex Bowman 439 1 1 6 3 9
9 William Byron 438 2 3 13 4 4
10 Christopher Bell 434 0 0 0 4 9
11 Aric Almirola 385 0 0 0 2 5
12 Tyler Reddick 379 0 2 2 4 6
13 Kevin Harvick 377 0 0 0 3 7
14 Chase Briscoe 362 1 1 6 3 4
15 Erik Jones 353 0 0 0 1 5
16 Austin Dillon 350 0 0 0 3 6

Winless Ryan Blaney and/or Ryan Truex should be in great shape

The legal sportsbooks should consider a new weekly prop bet based on an over/under for the number of laps Ryan Blaney will lead in the race. After leading 12 laps this past weekend, Blaney has paced the field around the track for at least one lap in 13 of 15 races this season.

That hasn’t translated into a victory (yet), but Blaney has led 385 laps. Contrast that with a year ago, when Blaney won three times despite leading only 423 laps for the 36-race season.

Blaney is fourth in the standings with 11 races left in the regular season. As long as there are no more than four more first-time winners this season, he should make the playoffs based on points. And considering that Chase Elliott, who already owns a win, could be good for a couple of wins in the upcoming four road races, Blaney can breathe a bit more easily.

At the moment, Blaney is 102 points above the cut line, Ryan Truex is close behind at 93 points over, and Christopher Bell can feel somewhat comfortable for now at plus-57.

If the regular season ended today, Aric Almirola (plus-8) and Tyler Reddick (plus-2) would also sneak in. Kevin Harvick (minus-2), Erik Jones (minus-26), and Austin Dillon (minus-29) lead the list of drivers on the outside looking in.

Rank Driver Points Race Wins Stage Wins Playoff Pts Top 5 Top 10
17 Kurt Busch 333 1 2 7 4 6
18 Austin Cindric 330 1 1 6 1 2
19 Denny Hamlin 319 2 2 12 3 3
20 Daniel Suarez 319 0 2 2 2 4
21 Michael McDowell 293 0 0 0 0 5
22 Bubba Wallace 283 0 1 1 1 2
23 Justin Haley 278 0 0 0 1 1
24 Chris Buescher 275 0 0 0 0 3
25 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 272 0 0 0 1 5
26 Ty Dillon 256 0 0 0 0 1
27 Cole Custer 246 0 0 0 0 0
Rank Driver Points Race Wins Stage Wins Playoff Pts Top 5 Top 10
28 Harrison Burton 223 0 0 0 0 0
29 Todd Gilliland 221 0 0 0 0 0
30 Brad Keselowski 200 0 0 -10 0 1
31 Corey LaJoie 182 0 0 0 1 1
32 Cody Ware 133 0 0 0 0 0
33 BJ McLeod 104 0 0 0 0 0
34 David Ragan 61 0 0 0 0 1
35 Greg Biffle 24 0 0 0 0 0
36 Jacques Villeneuve 15 0 0 0 0 0
37 Boris Said 11 0 0 0 0 0
38 Joey Hand 2 0 0 0 0 0

All stats courtesy of Racing Reference.

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John Moriello

John Moriello started covering sports in 1982, began digital publishing in 1995, and joined Sportscasting in 2020. A graduate of St. John Fisher University, he finds inspiration in the underdogs and the fascinating stories sports can tell (both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat). John expertly covers all aspects of NASCAR.

Beginning with his 2014 coverage at Fox Sports of the aftermath of the dirt-race tragedy in which Kevin Ward Jr. died after being struck by a car driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, John has excelled as a journalist who specializes in the motorsports world. He previously spent more than three decades covering high school sports and worked as a beat writer covering Big East football and basketball, but NASCAR is now where the true expertise falls.

John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com.