Joey Logano's second-place finish could be the turning point of his season

Going into Sunday night's Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway, Joey Logano was in desperate need of a good finish. He got it and then some, finishing second to Denny Hamlin in what could be the turning point of his season. 

The two-time Cup Series champion has had a horrendous start to his 16th full-time NASCAR Cup Series season, finishing better than 22nd just once during the first five races. After an 11th place finish at Circuit of The Americas last Sunday, Logano notched his best finish and drove his best overall race of the season thus far with a runner-up bid in Richmond. 

While Logano was disappointed that he came up just one spot short of victory in Sunday's race, he and the No. 22 team will take whatever comes his way as far as good finishes go. When your best finish on the season is ninth, second feels like a win. 

"It feels good and it doesn't at the same time," Logano said in a post-race interview with FOX's Regan Smith. "It feels good to be in contention to win the race, but it hurts to be that close and not capitalize on it. Paul (Wolfe) gave me a great car, everybody did a great job preparing this Shell Pennzoil Mustang, and gave me something that I could win with."

For a team with a championship pedigree, second place feels like a return to normalcy for Logano rather than an outlier, but so far in 2024, it's one of the biggest surprise runs of the season — and one that Logano and his team could parlay into future success as soon as this weekend's race at Martinsville, where Logano is a past winner. 

The next string of races is certainly an optimistic one for Logano, as he's won at each of the next three racetracks in Martinsville, Texas, and Talladega, where the team hopes to build on its momentum, and possibly find victory lane along the way. 

Time will tell whether or not Sunday's runner-up finish catapults Logano and the No. 22 team to success in 2024, but at the moment, it seems like a good launching off point for a team that has struggled mightily to open the season.