{"id":3505,"date":"2026-07-20T10:35:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=3505"},"modified":"2026-07-20T10:35:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T10:35:05","slug":"wilkesboro-belonged-to-nascar-champ-joey-logano-but-there-was-another-winner-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=3505","title":{"rendered":"Wilkesboro belonged to NASCAR champ Joey Logano. But there was another winner, too"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you tuned in for the last 10 laps of the battle of attrition that was North Wilkesboro Speedway<\/a> on Sunday, you might imagine that this race had one winner.<\/p>\n

Read more 3 killed in hit-and-run, NC police say. Tracking dogs find suspect in creek bed<\/a><\/p>\n

And, in a literal sense, it did.<\/p>\n

But there were actually two winners on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

One was Joey Logano<\/a>, the race winner, the ever-smiling-but-ever-attacking three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion.<\/p>\n

The other?<\/p>\n

Shane van Gisbergen.<\/p>\n

To be clear, the spectacle that was NASCAR\u2019s first Cup points race at North Wilkesboro Speedway in 30 years belonged to Logano. The driver of the 22 car led a career-high 323 laps Sunday. That was even more laps led than the last time he won at North Wilkesboro Speedway \u2014 in 2024, when he led 199 of 200 laps at the annual All-Star Race<\/a>. His competitors marveled at his speed post-race. He passed so much lapped traffic that there were only six cars on the lead lap once all was said and done Sunday \u2014 only six<\/i> in the 30-plus car field.<\/p>\n

And he needed this result, too. Coming into Sunday\u2019s race, he sat 18th in the NASCAR Cup Series standings \u2014 two spots below the 10-race playoff Chase with the regular season running out. He hadn\u2019t won all season; he hadn\u2019t even earned a stage win before Sunday. Once all the carnage cleared, he added 73 points and jumped up to 15th \u2014 and, more importantly, he felt a belief return to the 22 team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But while fireworks exploded in the muggy North Carolina sky, with Logano completing a Polish lap around the vaunted venue, watching his season starting to ascend in the right kind of smoke \u2014 there was another winner not far away. He was smiling, pouring water over his face to cool down after one of the warmest runs of the season, sitting down behind his car on pit lane, staring into the cloudless sky in exhaustion but maybe also wonder.<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen finished fifth on Sunday \u2014 only his second Top 5 finish on a Cup Series oval in his already storied career. His first Top 5 came at Nashville last month; he ran sixth at Atlanta last weekend.<\/p>\n

Yes, van Gisbergen has won eight Cup races in his brief but remarkable NASCAR Cup career \u2014 including winning in his first career start, in NASCAR\u2019s first street course race in Chicago in 2023<\/a>, an ineffable feat. The New Zealander has even won twice already in 2026. But those wins have all come on road courses, a skill everyone knew he had coming from his reign in the Australian Supercars Championship.<\/p>\n

But the rest of the Cup Series beware: He\u2019s getting better on ovals. And quickly.<\/p>\n

Read more This NC travel destination ranks as a fan favorite to visit \u2014 again<\/a><\/p>\n

So quickly, in fact, that he\u2019s even surprising himself a bit. When he took the lead early in Sunday\u2019s race \u2014 he led a race-second-best 49 laps \u2014 he joked over the radio: \u201cI\u2019m leading. What the (expletive) do I do now?!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like the Truck race, I could roll the bottom really well and be loose in on turns,\u201d van Gisbergen said post-race. \u201cWe had one good stage where I could run up top. … (Short-track racing) is a lot like a road course. Half the race I right-foot braked. I just feel comfortable doing that. It\u2019s a real balanced track. You can really affect the car with your driving technique, so I felt comfortable doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why was he so good here?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still room for him to grow. He admitted that his game on the intermediate ovals needs improvement, and if he wants to keep his place in the 16-car playoff, he\u2019ll need to improve there. He sits 14th after North Wilkesboro.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no doubt that he won Sunday. Not quite to the same extent as Logano \u2014 the real victor, the one who drove his car to the lift and ascended into Victory Lane on top of the media center roof, the one who lifted a steering wheel as confetti and water splashed around him. But he won.<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin, who finished second, expressed as much. He spoke of van Gisbergen in a way that, if you weren\u2019t paying attention, you probably thought he was talking about Logano.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just can\u2019t say how impressive it is,\u201d Hamlin said, talking about one of the two winners of Sunday \u2014 the one who didn\u2019t take the trip to Victory Lane. \u201c(It\u2019s crazy) that the guy, in a year and a half, or whatever it is, has come in here and figured out how to run ovals as good as he has.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trouble is brewing for Republicans in this red NC congressional district | Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASCAR champion Joey Logano dominated at North Wilkesboro Speedway. But Shane van Gisbergen also continued his ascension at the North Carolina racetrack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nWilkesboro belonged to NASCAR champ Joey Logano. 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