Start: 12th | Finish: 5th | Stage One: 9th | Stage Two: 6th | Points: 16th

Joey Logano posted his third top-five finish in three Cup Series starts at Gateway Sunday afternoon, coming away with a fifth-place result. Logano worked his way into the top-10 early in the opening stage after starting 12th despite a loose-handling condition to cross the line ninth in Stage 1. Following a four-tire stop at the stage break, Logano lined up to restart 18th as teams began to vary their strategies. Crew chief Paul Wolfe opted to run long as opposed to splitting the second stage, allowing Logano to climb the leaderboard all the way to fourth. The caution flag flew on lap 112 and Logano brought the Shell-Pennzoil Ford to pit road for four tires as the field lined up to restart with 21 laps to go in the second segment. Logano powered his way through traffic to reach the top-five with ten laps to go in the stage before settling for a sixth-place finish in Stage 2. The Team Penske Fords lined up 1-2-3 for the start of the final stage as Logano managed his tires over the long green flag run before hitting pit road for the final time on lap 177 from the lead during the cycle. He made his way back on the lead lap with 47 laps to go before making his way back into the top-10 with 23 laps remaining as the pit cycle continued to shuffle the field. The race stayed green the rest of the way as Logano continued to make his way to the front before ultimately crossing the line fifth for his second top-five finish of the season.

 “We weren’t too far off. We were just a few adjustments away of getting our Shell-Pennzoil Mustang as good as our teammates were, but not too bad. We were able to grab some points, which we need to do, and a Penske car got in Victory Lane, so you’ve got to be happy about that. Obviously, we’d rather it be us, but that momentum goes through the whole shop. It’s still a good day. We still scored a bunch of points today with stage points in both stages. A poor qualifying effort, which probably hurt us a little bit on tuning the car and just a little too loose off.”

WHAT’S NEXT:The NASCAR Cup Series heads west to the newly-repaved Sonoma Raceway for the second of five road course races on the 2024 schedule. The 110-lap event on Sunday, June 9, begins coverage at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.