In the NASCAR Cup Series race at North Wilkesboro on Sunday, July 19, Joey Logano delivered one of the most dominant performances in the 2026 season. This performance caught championship leader Denny Hamlin’s attention.

During the  Window World 450, after starting the race in 11th place, Logano kept himself in the top ten during the first stage. In Stage 2, he took the lead of the race and never looked back. While in the closing laps Hamlin tried to challenge him, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver failed to catch up to the Team Penske driver. 

While recapping the race on his podcast, "Actions Detrimental," Hamlin broke down what stood out the most for him about Logano’s performance when multiple cars were a lap down. 

"I mean it there was cars multiple multiple laps down, even after that went laps down again," Hamlin said during the podcast. "So, I mean, I'm telling you, I've been part of some short track races, and I thought the 22 (Joey Logano)  was just exceptional. It didn't seem like he was super line-dependent."

Elaborating further on what made the No. 22 driver's performance so impressive, Hamlin also praised Team Penske for the good grip the car had. He said:

"Like, he would go in the corner sometimes and hit the bottomish. Sometimes it would be in the middle; sometimes he'd wash up to the middle. And it just seemed like they had, you know, really, really good overall grip in the car, and Joey was able to be really aggressive, especially on restarts with it."

The three-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion broke the winless race streak he had going on since May 2025. He led a race-high of 323 laps and broke his own record for most laps led during a race. Previously, the record was 309 laps, set during the 2018 race at Martinsville, reinforcing why Denny Hamlin called the performance "exceptional."

Joey Logano praises Denny Hamlin after holding him off in the final laps

During the final round of green-flag pit stops at the NASCAR Cup Series race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, it was a race to get out of the pit road first. And the No. 22 Team Penske crew executed a flawless pit stop, allowing Joey Logano to leave the pit road first.

From this point on, Denny Hamlin was stuck behind Logano as they made their way through the lapped traffic. In the post-race interview with TNT Sports’ Shannon Spake, the No. 22 driver admitted that he felt the pressure that his JGR rival was mounting on him.

"I mean, the pressure was there for sure," Logano said in the interview. "Denny got really good there in the last run, and honestly it was whoever’s out front is going to win the race. That last run we were pretty dominant most of the race, but as the race went along, the race got better there in the last run. They did a decent job keeping up, but gosh, it feels good."

As for Denny Hamlin, he settled for second place and managed to increase his lead in the drivers' championship by 68 points over Tyler Reddick in second.

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Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Yash Kotak