NASCAR: The 3 champions who haven’t won in over a year
By Asher Fair
Winless NASCAR champions: No. 2 – Joey Logano
Joey Logano hasn’t had a winless season since 2011 when he was still with Joe Gibbs Racing, but his and Team Penske’s struggles as of late, plus the fact that he finished no higher than third place at any point from April 2021 until the end of the 2021 season, have made some question whether his 10-year winning streak will be extended in the first year of the Next Gen car.
Logano won just one race in the 2021 season, and of all the races he won, he won the dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway, something that not many expected. But during races in which you’d expect him to be a contender, he really wasn’t.
In 40 races since the dirt race, he hasn’t found victory lane. His best finish during this drought is his second place finish at Martinsville Speedway last month. In 11 races this year, he has only led 35 laps.
This win drought is his longest win drought as a Team Penske driver. He went 48 consecutive races without a win in 2012, his final season with Joe Gibbs’s team, and in 2013, his first season with Roger Penske’s team. But only 22 of those 48 races came behind the wheel of the #22 Ford.
As for the rest of Team Penske, Ryan Blaney has been consistent in 2022, but despite sitting in second place in the point standings, he has not finished higher than fourth in any single race. And while rookie Austin Cindric won the season-opening Daytona 500, his only other top 10 finish is an eighth place effort at Circuit of the Americas, and he is down in 18th in the standings.