CUSUMANO: Loudon Looms Large For Truex & Logano

Martin Truex Jr. (19) and Joey Logano in action at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (Lesley Ann Miller/LAT for Toyota Racing photo)

LOUDON, N.H. – Last time the NASCAR Cup Series made its annual trip to New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Martin Truex Jr. finally claimed a breakthrough victory at one of two tracks he calls home.

In that same race, two-time Loudon winner and New England native Joey Logano crossed the finish line less than four-tenths-of-a-second behind as the runner-up.

At this point in their respective seasons, however, both former Cup Series champions are seeking turnarounds and would relish a potential repeat performance with just nine races remaining in the regular season.

In a span of four weeks, Logano has seen both his Team Penske teammates – Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney – lock into the playoffs via victories at Gateway and Iowa, respectively. The recent surge has started to right what’s been a puzzlingly sluggish first half for the Ford camp as a whole.

During that same stretch, Christopher Bell scored his second win of the season during the Coca-Cola 600, while Truex has gone ice cold after what was a consistent start to his recently announced final full-time tour at NASCAR’s top level.

As another parallel for the East Coast champions who owned the top-two spots at Loudon last summer, both drivers came within two laps of their first victory of the season at Richmond (Va.) Raceway in April.

Truex led a race-high 228 laps that day, while Logano came home second after Denny Hamlin jumped ahead for a scene-stealing second win of the season.

Looking ahead to Sunday’s USA Today 301 at the Magic Mile, both drivers have a great shot at breaking into the win column, but which one needs it more and who’s more likely to get back to victory lane?

Beginning with Logano, Penske’s prominence as of late has been clear, with two wins over the last three weeks. Though the driver of the No. 22 has been the odd man out of victory lane, he was fifth at Gateway and sixth at Iowa, while leading 16 laps and finishing 21st in between at Sonoma Raceway.

As a result, Logano has clawed his way up to 17th in the playoff standings, only six points out of the 16th-spot held by Bubba Wallace. A two-time winner at his home track, Logano placed second at New Hampshire last year, leading 25 laps and coming home 24th.

Time is running out for Truex, who announced last week he’d be retiring from full-time competition at the end of the season. At 43 years old, the driver of the No. 19 is the oldest in the series (alongside teammate Hamlin), but it didn’t look that way to start his 19th campaign in Cup.

After back-to-back top-15s to open the season, Truex went on a five-race top-10 streak, then went on to hold second in the point standings for seven consecutive races with one of the best average-finishing positions in the series.

Going back to Gateway, Truex ran inside the top 10 for a majority of the day, before a flat tire relegated him to a 34th-place finish and dropped him to fourth in the standings.

The following weekend at Sonoma, Truex had his best chance since Richmond to get his first win of the season, but was ready to settle for a runner-up day after eventual winner Kyle Larson got by him with nine to go.

However, Truex ran out of gas on the final turn in Sonoma, going from a surefire runner-up finish to 27th. Since that race, the 2017 champion has stabilized in fifth in the standings – the deepest he’s been since the second week of the season at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway in February.

To put in perspective how much Truex has dropped off, he hasn’t finished inside the top 10 since Kansas Speedway in the beginning of May, and he’s currently riding a five-race skid of 12th or worse – including three races outside the top 20.

The silver lining for Truex is that the speed has been there for him to capitalize on. Outside of a lackluster 15th-place outing at Iowa Speedway and skewed 12th-place finish in the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600, Truex likely would’ve had a top-10 and top-five day at Gateway and Sonoma, respectively.

On top of that, there’s a great chance Truex can go back-to-back in Loudon.

In addition to being the most recent winner at the Magic Mile, Truex owns the most laps led there among active drivers with 1,170 – with 426 of those coming over his last two starts, where he led the most laps in both races.

While Truex may have finished fourth in 2022, JGR hasn’t lost a race at New Hampshire in the Next Gen era. Considering his status as the most recent winner in Loudon, as well as his two podium days on short tracks this year (including a runner-up at Bristol), it’s reasonable for one to expect a rebound from Truex.

As for who has the upper hand – it’s hard to tell. Team Penske has won two of the last three races, as Logano seems to have found his groove, while Truex has had inconsistent speed as of late, but boasts stats that point to a prosperous day in New Hampshire.

Per BetMGM, Truex enters with the second-shortest odds to win at +500 to Bell’s +400, while Logano is just outside the top-five at +800. That’s a bet that would be easy to take for either driver.

Regardless, both Truex and Logano have strong arguments for why it could finally be their time in victory lane. If either makes it happen Sunday, it’ll be a case of perfect timing in the run to the Cup Series playoffs.

Coverage of Sunday’s USA Today 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway is slated for 2:30 p.m. ET, live on USA, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

The opinions expressed are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the position of Race Face Brand Development, Race Face TV, their partners, or any subsidiaries.