Joey Logano ends victory drought in NASCAR points return to North Wilkesboro

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. (AP) — The drought is over for Joey Logano.

Logano snapped a 45-race winless streak Sunday night with a dominant victory at North Wilkesboro Speedway in the first points race at the 0.625-mile track in 30 years.

After Logano wrapped up a lengthy on-track burnout, Denny Hamlin approached him and dabbed him up out of respect. Hamlin spent the second part of the race doing everything he could to catch Logano, but it proved fruitless.

The No. 22 Ford was too dominant. Logano led 323 of 450 laps.

“It’s wildly, wildly impressive what he did,” Hamlin said. “I thought it was a really impressive drive from him, how he maneuvered through (lapped) traffic and did everything we know Joey to do.”

It was Logano's 38th career Cup win, and his first since May 2025 at Texas.

The 36-year-old Logano also extended his streak of winning at least one race to 15 consecutive seasons, the longest among active drivers. The late Kyle Busch holds the record, winning in 19 straight seasons (2005-2023).

"A win anywhere at this point would have sounded great, but coming here and doing it at North Wilkesboro is awesome,” Logano said.

Hamlin finished second, followed by Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs and Shane Van Gisbergen.

It was a huge win for Logano, who entered the race outside of the top 16 in the Chase for the playoffs. He's now inside the cutline in 15th place.

“I feel like I know exactly what I need to go fast around this place,” said Logano, who won the 2024 All-Star race here in dominant fashion. “I knew coming this weekend that we’ve got to capitalize on the points.”

The track, built in 1947, sat mostly dormant for a quarter of a century following its last points race in on Sept. 29, 1996.

Speedway Motorsports undertook the monumental task of refurbishing it, including clearing the weeds and trees growing up through the middle of the racetrack. NWS hosted the All-Star race from 2023-25.

Ryan Blaney and Todd Gilliland have reached the finals of the $1 million NASCAR In-Season Challenge. Blaney defeated Christopher Bell head-to-head in the semifinals on Sunday night, while Gilliland topped Chase Elliott.

The champion will be decided next Sunday in Indianapolis at the Brickyard 400 with the driver finishing higher in the race awarded the $1 million prize.

Tyler Reddick got caught up a wreck on lap 184 when Alex Bowman cut him off as he was attempting to go from the top row down into pit row, spinning out the No. 45.

Bowman told his crew chief, “I thought I had hole but maybe I didn’t.”

Ryan Blaney, who won last week at Atlanta, was set to start on the pole based on metrics after qualifying was rained out on Saturday. Instead, he was forced to start the race at the rear of the field after his No. 12 Ford Mustang had a power steering pump issue.

Things only got worst for the 2023 Cup Series champion after he received a speeding penalty on pit row on lap 365, dropping him out of the top five and costing him 15 positions.

The Cup Series heads to Indianapolis next week for the Brickyard 400. Bubba Wallace captured his first crown jewel event last year after Austin Cindric blew a tire.

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Joey Logano celebrates in Victory Lane after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in North Wilkesboro, N.C., Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Joey Logano (22) takes th checkered flag to win a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in North Wilkesboro, N.C., Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Joey Logano poses with the trophy in Victory Lane after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in North Wilkesboro, N.C., Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Joey Logano celebrates after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in North Wilkesboro, N.C., Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

Joey Logano celebrates in Victory Lane after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in North Wilkesboro, N.C., Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Crew members perform a pit stop on driver Denny Hamlin's car during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in North Wilkesboro, N.C., Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Drivers race their cars down the front stretch during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in North Wilkesboro, N.C., Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Drivers perform a pit stop on driver Todd Gilliland's car during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in North Wilkesboro, N.C., Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Joey Logano drives down the front stretch during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in North Wilkesboro, N.C., Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Ty Gibbs (54) passes Shane van Gisbergen (97) to win the first segment of a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in North Wilkesboro, N.C., Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a Massachusetts mother who strangled her three children while undergoing medical treatment for psychiatric problems that developed after she gave birth.

The trial of Lindsay Clancy, which could take several weeks, is expected to explore the complicated and rare phenomenon of postpartum psychosis, which afflicts a very small percentage of women who develop delusions and sometimes hallucinations after childbirth.

Five jurors were selected Monday. A total of 18 jurors, including six alternates, will be chosen for the trial.

Clancy's lawyers — and her husband — say she was not responsible for her actions. Defense attorney Kevin Reddington doesn’t dispute that she killed the children, but plans to raise an insanity defense.

“This whole case is an extreme tragedy,” he said.

Prosecutors say the killings were intentional and well planned, not the work of someone who had lost control.

Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the deaths of her children Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, when they were killed on Jan. 24, 2023.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

On the day of the killings, Clancy, now 36, asked her husband Patrick Clancy to leave their home to get takeout food and to pick up something at a pharmacy. She strangled the children with exercise bands, then used multiple methods to try to end her own life.

She was paralyzed after falling from the home’s second-story window, and is being held at a state hospital.

Clancy’s husband is on the list of witnesses for both the prosecution and the defense. He has said in interviews that he forgives his wife.

Eighteen jurors, including six alternates, are expected to be chosen over several days for the trial in Plymouth, which is near the family’s home in Duxbury, an upscale coastal suburb about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Boston.

Clancy and her husband filed lawsuits earlier this year accusing her medical providers of failing to properly diagnose, treat and monitor her for a “severe postpartum psychiatric condition.” She spent several days at a psychiatric hospital weeks before the killings.

Lindsay Clancy’s lawsuit detailed how she was depressed, had trouble sleeping and repeatedly heard voices urging her to harm her children and herself.

“Lindsay Clancy did everything a mother in her situation could do,” the lawsuit said. “She recognized something was wrong with her. She sought medical treatment. She went to emergency rooms. She called crisis hotlines. She admitted herself to hospitals. She took the medication prescribed to her. She communicated her worsening symptoms to her providers. She told them the medications were making her worse.”

The day of the killings, Clancy said she heard voices saying, “This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself.” A voice told her “that her children would suffer if she was gone,” according to the lawsuit filed by Patrick Clancy, citing medical records.

In a post on GoFundMe several days after the killings, Patrick Clancy wrote that the “shock and pain is excruciating and relentless,” but he urged the public to see Lindsay Clancy as he did before the killings.

“The real Lindsay was generously loving and caring toward everyone — me, our kids, family, friends, and her patients. The very fibers of her soul are loving. All I wish for her now is that she can somehow find peace,” it said.

Paula and Mike Musgrove, parents of Lindsay Clancy, sit as jury selection starts in Lindsay's murder trial where she is charged in the 2023 killing of her three children, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Defense attorney Kevin Reddington argues a motion about expert witnesses before the start of jury selection in the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy charged in the 2023 killing of her three children, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Lindsay Clancy sits as jury selection starts in her murder trial where she is charged in the 2023 killing of her three children, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Lindsay Clancy sits as jury selection starts in her murder trial where she is charged in the 2023 killing of her three children, Monday, July 20, 2026, in Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

FILE - In this image from video, Lindsay Clancy, with a surgical mask over her face, appears from the hospital for her arraignment on charges regarding the death of her three children, at Plymouth District Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Feb. 7, 2023. (David Ryan/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool, File)