Friday Faceoff: Is Joey Logano’s Start to the 2026 Season Concerning?

1) Is Joey Logano and the No. 22 team’s performance concerning six races into the season?

Michael Finley: It is, and unlike the Chevrolet teams, there’s really not a great reason why that is. Ryan Blaney is the clear No. 1 at Penske now, and the results speak to that.

James Krause: In years past, I’d say no. The win-and-you’re-in format played to Joey Logano and Team Penske’s tendency to drag out the first few months of the year and peak right as they head into the postseason. Now? A few bad races, like the ones Logano has had, will bury you in the points. If they don’t figure it out quickly, they’re going to find themselves chasing some other really good teams from Spire Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Trackhouse Racing just to get in The Chase.

Michael Bellifemini: Yes. The No. 2 team has shown better speed so far, but Martinsville Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway are two tracks that Penske runs well at on a year-to-year basis. Logano will get back on the right track over the next couple of races.

Christopher Hansen: Despite this being an even year, Logano’s overall performance to open 2026 is concerning. In six races, Logano has only one top five and one top 10. Last weekend at Darlington Raceway, while his Penske teammates Blaney and Austin Cindric showed good speed and scored solid results, Logano was a no-show all race long and limped to a disappointing 33rd-place finish. As it stands, Logano is in a tie with Michael McDowell for the final Chase spot as the series shifts to Martinsville. Logano and crew chief Paul Wolfe are one of the best driver/crew chief pairings in the garage area, and sooner or later, they’ll be running up front on a more consistent basis like their Penske teammates.

2) Tyler Reddick has already built up a 95-point lead through six races. Is the gap between winning and second place too big under the new points system?

Krause: Not at all. The points model is a great compromise for taking away win-and-in while keeping winning at the forefront of how to rack up success. The answer to catching up to Tyler Reddick for those near the top of the standings is simple: Beat him and take advantage of his bad days. Meanwhile, anyone deeper in the field can find themselves comfortably in the Chase convo with multiple wins.

Finley: If anything, this is the first point system NASCAR has used, maybe ever, where winning is this important. If you go back and look at the forums and letters to the editor in the Scene, a lot of people complained in the 1980s and 1990s that winning just didn’t reward them enough. Consistency is a great thing to have in a championship battle, but there were definitely years where it felt like the wrong driver won the championship.

Hansen: The 55 points that a race winner gets will be huge when The Chase begins after the reseeding. The system still rewards winning while also factoring in consistency. It’s a little too large a gap between first and second, but the rules are there for a reason, and drivers are going to have to keep adapting and putting their best foot forward as the season continues.

Bellifemini: That is the right amount, because it is very rare that we see a driver win four of the first six races. Reddick has been attracting the headlines so far this year, and it will be fun to see if anyone can chase him down. A huge points gap this early doesn’t always mean a title, especially with the Chase reset.

3) How many of the three Spire drivers will make The Chase?

Hansen: I’m leaning toward two Spire. Both Daniel Suarez and Carson Hocevar have shown flashes of brilliance to start this season, with the pair both finishing well inside the top 10 last weekend at Darlington Raceway. Suarez’s strong start for his new team has been a pleasant surprise, given how he struggled during his time with Trackhouse in the last few seasons. If McDowell is able to contend for top 10s on a more weekly basis, I think it’s safe to pencil in all three Spire drivers in this year’s postseason.

Finley: I’m becoming a believer in Suarez. He seems to be the most consistently quick of the three so far. Hocevar needs to be a little more consistent, but he may well get there.

Bellifemini: At least one will get in, maybe two. Hocevar seems like the most likely to get in, with Suarez a close second right now. I don’t like McDowell’s chances quite as much with the lower number of road courses on the schedule this season.

Krause: At least one, maybe two. Suarez has been on an absolute tear and is the driver I have the most faith in within that group. Hocevar is great, and it feels like a given he’ll be contending for wins throughout the year, but he was plagued by mechanical gremlins last year that make me hesitant to guarantee him a spot. McDowell is solid, but I don’t see him being among the 16 best this season.

4) Which driver has had the most surprising start (good or bad) in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series?

Bellifemini: A popular answer should be Parker Retzlaff since he’s doing this with a young team in Viking Motorsports, but I’m also impressed with Corey Day. He started off the season in all the wrong conversations for all the wrong reasons and caused crashes, but he has been very consistent. Carson Kvapil and Rajah Caruth holding playoff spots while hopping in different rides almost every week is also something that should be praised.

Krause: For as good a start as Harrison Burton had last season, which helped kickstart a playoff berth, 2026 has started off disastrously. He was dead last among full-time drivers at one point and still sits ahead of only Lavar Scott and Ryan Ellis. Sam Hunt Racing has probably been satisfied just getting to the finish line in the last three races, with a 20.7 average finish. Now that team needs to start getting aggressive in making up ground. Martinsville Speedway, a track where Burton has won, and Rockingham Speedway, where he finished third last year, seem to be good places to start.

Finley: I figured Justin Allgaier would be in a prime spot to pick up the pieces with Connor Zilisch moving on up, but I didn’t expect a 52-point lead after just six races.

Hansen: Retzlaff. Compared to last year, when he recorded three top 10s over a full season, Retzlaff has two top 10s in the opening six races of 2026. Last weekend at Darlington was by far Retzlaff’s best run of the season, finishing eighth after running inside the top 10 most of the race. If he can continue stacking consistent finishes, I expect Retzlaff to eventually contend for top-five finishes on a regular basis and secure a spot in the postseason.