Window World 450: Logano snaps 45-race drought, dominates at North Wilkesboro

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano dominated the first points-paying premier series race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in 30 years, leading a career-high 323 of 450 laps on Sunday night after winning the Window World 450.

The Team Penske driver’s 38th career Cup Series victory ended a 45-race winless streak, while also jumping to 15th in the standings as he looks to keep the momentum moving forward heading into The Chase.

“It was just a solid race car,” Logano said. “I knew in practice that the car had speed and the balance was really loose. When you have that, its like, ‘OK, if we get the balance right, this thing is really fast, I think.’ So, they did a good job dialing it in overnight and putting it in position at the end of the first stage. That’s when we finally got where we needed to be and was able to just set sail up front. It was just a really solid race car. I was lucky to get to drive this one today and really just being able to manage a lot of things inside the car, so I’m proud of Paul Wolfe. He does a good job. We tested twice over the offseason here when they were testing all of the other stuff with the rules packages and stuff, so just a really good tester.”

Logano celebrated by doing a burnout around the entire 0.625-mile short track in the North Carolina foothills.

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin earned another top five on a short track. The driver of the No. 11 Progressive Insurance Toyota battled Logano throughout the final stage but could not catch the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford.

“You just have to complement them (Joey Logano) on a great day and a great drive,” Hamlin said. “They were really good. There were a lot of times that I felt like my car was really close to where it needed to be; it was just a smidge off. Great battle. At least was able to keep them honest there, but he had a lot of speed and never gave up on the short run or the long run, so great job to our whole Progressive Toyota team for keeping us in the ballgame, but we will have to go regroup.

“It was just wildly impressive,” Hamlin added when asked about paying his respects to Logano. “I thought it was a really impressive drive from them, and he maneuvered through traffic really well, and he did everything we know Joey (Logano) to do. Really feel good about our day though. Really big improvement of where we were here last year. This Toyota was just one spot short.”

Hamlin’s JGR teammate Chase Briscoe went from 30th to third to earn his third top-three finish in the last four races. Briscoe’s 45 points earned pushed him to eighth in the Cup Series standings.

“It was a long race,” Briscoe said. “There is no doubt about that. It was some really long green flag runs there. We just ran 200 laps straight. It was honestly a lot of fun. The track — you could run in the middle or at the bottom or run the fence. It gave you options. My car drove pretty good, so I had fun. I think if your car wasn’t driving right, it was probably a long, miserable night. Our WIX Filters was really, really good. We came through the field quite a few times. We just never could quite get the lead. I felt if we could have got to the lead, we would have been okay, but that last run we kind of lost it again. Great night. What we needed. Hopefully, we will go to Indy and win one there.”

Results from the 2026 Window World 450 at North Wilkesboro Speedway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs had an eventful day at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The driver of the No. 54 SiriusXM Toyota started on the front row, won Stage 1, then got penalized for speeding on pit road. Gibbs ended up going a lap down, and then battled back to unlap himself and finish fourth.

“Man, I don’t know,” Gibbs said when asked if he thought he could recover from the penalty. “We had such a great car. I really appreciate my team and the car they gave me. It is just so unfortunate. The lights were just a pain. I just wanted to rip the dash out of it after that. Just frustrating. We will just keep going. Really appreciative of my team. Thank you to Monster. Thank you to SiriusXM, Toyota and everyone at SAIA.”

Trackhouse Racing driver Shane van Gisbergen had the best short-track race of his NASCAR Cup Series career. SVG led 49 of 450 laps, was one lap away from winning Stage 1 (finished second) and ended up finishing fifth, which was the best short-track finish of his Cup Series career.

“It was an awesome night for the No. 97 Wendy’s Chevrolet team,” van Gisbergen said. “It was pretty cool to get the lead. I just wasn’t good enough on the long run. But overall, I had a lot of fun. Thank you to Wendy’s, Chevrolet, everyone at Trackhouse Racing for the support. Everyone on this team did a great job. It was a good points race, which is what we really needed.”

In addition to his Cup Series performance, van Gisbergen drove the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado to a third-place finish in the Craftsman Truck Series race on Saturday in Wilkes County.

Bubba Wallace finished sixth, and he was the last car to finish on the lead lap. The 23XI Racing driver joked post-race about no yellow line penalties this race weekend and how his finish builds positive momentum as he looks to go back-to-back in the Brickyard 400 next Sunday.

Two cautions changed the entire race at North Wilkesboro. On Lap 184, Alex Bowman tried to pit from the top lane during the green flag cycle, and in doing so, slammed into Tyler Reddick to cause a caution. This caution trapped multiple drivers one and two laps down, and the majority of them were never able to recover.

Just a few laps after going back to green, Christopher Bell got into Josh Berry, effectively ending the day for Wood Brothers Racing. In doing that, his JGR teammate Gibbs was able to get back on the lead lap and fight his way back into the top five.

In-Season Challenge Updates

Year 2 of the NASCAR In-Season Challenge heads into the final round after Round 4 at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Todd Gilliland (No. 25 seed) upset Chase Elliott (No. 4 seed), while Ryan Blaney (No. 3 seed) took down Christopher Bell (No. 10 seed). Gilliland will face Blaney for a chance at $1 million on Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

We definitely caught a big lucky break there at the beginning, but that was strategy,” Gilliland said. “We knew there was a risk with short pitting and everybody did, so I was definitely very proud of the strategy and kind of the way we executed the whole race. That was probably about as good as it could have gone. It’s crazy. We’ve got to beat one more guy for a million dollars [Ryan Blaney].”

GRID RANKING

The 2026 GRID Ranking is the 10th year of the world’s premier motorsports ranking system, which was initially released on Sunday, April 5.

The official ranking includes drivers participating in seven racing series (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, WRC, Supercars, MotoGP). Each driver earns GRID Ratings, which help determine their seeding in the GRID Ranking.

DRIVER	OLD RATING	PREVIOUS RANKING	MOST RECENT FINISH	NEW RATING	NEW RANKING
Tyler Reddick	15.17	4th	30th	N/A	N/A
Denny Hamlin	14.13	5th	2nd	N/A	N/A
Ty Gibbs	10.14	19th	4th	N/A	N/A
Christopher Bell	9.84	21st	19th	N/A	N/A
Ryan Blaney	9.47	25th	11th	N/A	N/A

Week 16 of the GRID Ranking: Coming Soon

In Week 16 of the GRID Ranking, Tyler Reddick’s rating continued to fall, while Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs continued to make gains.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 26. Coverage will begin at 2 p.m. ET on TNT Sports.

 

GRID Network