Joey Logano has three championships in the NASCAR Cup Series but none in the Chase system that has returned this season.
The Team Penske driver is embracing the challenge of proving he can win a title in the format that puts a greater emphasis on banking consistently strong finishes.
“Do I have a little chip on my shoulder? That’s a clear yes,” Logano said with a chuckle after his victory Saturday at Richmond Raceway. “So much so that our team slogan is ‘4 the haters.’ That’s where we’re at. That’s good extra motivation.”
With an impressive surge from 20th to ninth in the standings over the past six races, Logano has flipped the narrative on the elimination playoffs that were in place for 12 years.
From 2014-25, the waning races of NASCAR’s regular season typically were a scramble to make the championship field as a win earned a berth.
But that safety valve has disappeared in the Chase, which will rely entirely on points to set the 16-driver field.
The top 16 in the provisional Chase have been unchanged for the past four races, and the grid for the 10-race title run likely will remain the same at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend.
Shane van Gisbergen holds the 16th and final spot by 50 points over Ryan Preece, who dropped 21 points further below the Chase cutline with a 17th-place finish at Richmond.
The next three drivers ranked outside the Chase — Ross Chastain (12th at Richmond), Brad Keselowski (26th) and Erik Jones (27th) — also lost ground, diluting the potential drama of a surprise qualifier.
“The number of guys that feel the pressure of making the Chase is probably less,” said Christopher Bell, who is among seven drivers who have clinched Chase spots. “In years past, everybody on the outside still had an opportunity to get in, and now it’s kind of dwindled to a couple guys fighting for the spots.”
There’s been more intrigue toward the top half of the standings — particularly the progress of the Team Penske trio.
As Logano continued his push up the points ladder, teammate Ryan Blaney moved past Ty Gibbs into second in the standings at Richmond. Austin Cindric, Penske’s third driver, shored up his title eligibility with a career-best third on a short track to move up a spot to 15th in the points.
Denny Hamlin has a 115-point lead on Blaney and likely will clinch the Chase’s top seed Sunday at New Hampshire, which will be followed by the Aug. 29 regular-season finale at Daytona International Speedway.
The standings then will be reset for the Chase, which begins Sept. 6 at Darlington Raceway with the championship leader ahead by 25 points. Second will start 10 points ahead of third, and the remaining 14 spots will be separated by five-point increments.
“Getting to second is top of mind because every point is going to matter,” Blaney said.
There also is an emphasis on finishing the regular season in the top half of the points standings.
Racing Insights, a NASCAR analytics firm, ran more than 25,000 computer simulations of Chase outcomes, and the champion started in the top six 85% of the time.
Logano, who made the Chase only once while racing under the system in his first five Cup seasons from 2009-13, is 36 points from sixth-ranked Chase Elliott.
“We’ve been able to switch our goals from making the Chase to winning the championship,” said Logano, whose No. 22 Ford was ranked 17th before winning two of the past four races. “It’s quite the turnaround. I look at the last month and a half, we’ve been capable of winning all of them.”
Logano could be among several more drivers who lock into the championship Sunday with a solid result at New Hampshire.
Crew chief Paul Wolfe credited Logano with buoying morale when the team notched only two top-five finishes in the first half of the season.
“I’m proud of everyone sticking together,” Logano said. “There are times you see teams break, and it doesn’t take much longer running the way we were until something probably was going to break. We’ve been able to make quite the recovery to have a legit shot at the championship.”
After finishing sixth at Richmond, Kyle Larson immediately flew to Iowa and scored his fourth victory in the Knoxville Nationals, a prestigious sprint car event. Larson qualified on the pole position last week by winning a preliminary race at the renowned dirt track in Knoxville, Iowa.
He had expected to miss Saturday's main event because of the schedule conflict with Richmond, but a rain delay at Knoxville Raceway allowed the two-time Cup Series champion to arrive in time to lead all 50 laps. “It’s extremely surreal just to talk about the day and the range of emotions,” Larson said.
See AP’s full auto racing coverage here
Team Penske driver Joey Logano (22) celebrates with family in victory lane after winning the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026, in Richmond Va. (AP Photo/Robert Simmons)
Team Penske driver Joey Logano (22) celebrates in victory lane after winning the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026, in Richmond Va. (AP Photo/Robert Simmons)
U.S. President Donald Trump has again threatened Oman as Iran says it is working with the Gulf Arab country on a plan to manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Fully reopening the waterway has been a key U.S. demand.
Meanwhile, the 60-day negotiating period to find a peace deal between the United States and Iran was expiring, with no word of an extension and both sides seemingly as far apart as they were at the start.
Here’s a look at the latest developments Monday in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.
Iran said it has reached an agreement with Oman over a plan for ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz, which runs between the two countries, and they are now working to finalize details for a joint statement.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran, Iran's capital, that “an understanding has been reached regarding the map of the transit route.”
He did not elaborate, but details that have previously emerged suggest the deal would reopen the strait with ships entering through a route close to Iran and exiting through a route close to Oman. Ships would transit without paying fees or tolls during an interim period.
The U.S. has sought an acceptable deal on opening the strait before ending its blockade of Iranian ports.
Iran effectively closed the strait — through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil supplies passed before the war — after Israel and the U.S. attacked the country on Feb. 28.
Trump told Fox News reporter Trey Yingst that the U.S. would bomb Oman if it “gets in the way,” using an expletive for emphasis.
Fox News did not provide audio of the interview.
This is not the first time that Trump has threatened Oman. In May, he told reporters during a Cabinet meeting that “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.”
Trump also said the expiration of the 60-day deadline on talks to end the war was irrelevant and said there was no timeline, Yingst said. Trump said the U.S. has a back channel for talks with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Yingst added.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres wants Iran and the U.S. to resume peace negotiations, saying there is no military solution to the conflict, according to U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.
Dujarric said the U.N. chief also thinks the countries need to “lower the rhetoric that we’ve been hearing in recent days.”
Mideast negotiator Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, met on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the day after he had a rare, two-hour meeting with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt on disarmament of the Palestinian militant group.
Netanyahu last week rejected a 15-point, U.S.-backed road map to move the ceasefire deal forward in Gaza.
Hamas says it has agreed to the road map, which includes disarmament, and the group is urging mediators and the U.S.-created Board of Peace to “compel” Israel to sign on.
But Israel, which under the road map must gradually withdraw from Gaza, says Hamas must fully disarm before any Israeli withdrawal.
Israeli troops occupy about 60% of the strip, and Netanyahu has previously threatened to advance further.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed that they attacked a ship and four military boats on Monday in the Red Sea off the Yemeni city of Mokha, near the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The rebels fired a number of ballistic missiles at the vessels, resulting in the capsizing and burning of the boats, Yahya Saree, a military spokesperson for the Houthis, said in a statement.
The rebels claimed that the vessels belonged to Saudi Arabia, without providing evidence. There was no immediate comment from Saudi Arabia, and The Associated Press could not independently verify the Houthi claim.
Saree also said the rebels launched a drone attack on government forces in the central province of Marib.
Two officials in northern Iraq were targeted in drone attacks that the regional counterterrorism service said were launched from the border with Iran.
One was fired at the office of Masrour Barzani, prime minister of Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region, and the other targeted the home of a top regional intelligence official, the counterterrorism service said.
There were no casualties.
There was no immediate claim of responibility.
Since the beginning of the U.S.-Iran war, Iran and Iranian-backed Iraqi militant groups have launched regular attacks on U.S. military and diplomatic facilities in Iraq and on bases of exiled Iranian Kurdish dissident groups, but Monday’s direct attack on regional government buildings was unusual.
Barzani on X called the attack “a dangerous escalation and a direct threat to the security and stability of the Kurdistan Region.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on social media nothing justified the attack on Barzani and that “Kurdish friends should be vigilant against false-flag ploys to sow discord between neighbors.”
U.S. forces currently stationed in the Kurdish region of Iraq have begun withdrawing ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline agreed upon between Washington and Baghdad to end the U.S. military presence in Iraq.
This story was corrected earlier to show that the first name of the prime minister of Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region is Masrour Barzani, instead of Masoud Barzani.
FILE - Jared Kushner waits to walk into the ring after the lightweight championship bout at UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, June 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Palestinians remove iron from the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes during the war with Hamas, repair and recycle it for construction, building tents or selling it, in Gaza City, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A woman mourns during the funeral of Hezbollah member Ali al-Haj Hassan, his wife and four children who were killed the previous day by an Israeli airstrike, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Palestinians remove iron from the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes during the war with Hamas, repair and recycle it for construction, building tents or selling it, in Gaza City, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
