NASCAR Window World 450 takeaways: Joey Logano dominates in return to North Wilkesboro

As poor as Logano's season has been overall, especially for his standards, he had a top 10 in all three All-Star races at North Wilkesboro and won the 2024 exhibition race for $1M. In other words, it would have been a shock if he were not a contender despite the season-long results that have been lacking.

Logano now finds himself 15th in the standings, 49 points clear of Erik Jones for the final "Chase" spot. He is still nowhere near where he needs to be on the intermediates, but Logano once again showed that he is still a factor on the short tracks and someone who can string some wins together with more of them on the horizon next month.

Shane van Gisbergen has career night on an oval

He may still be searching for his first win on an oval, but the New Zealander and road course ace made some huge strides with a fifth-place finish at North Wilkesboro after scoring points in each stage.

In fact, van Gisbergen led his most laps ever in an oval race (49) and nearly came away with the Stage 1 win until Ty Gibbs surged ahead of him by a nose at the line. Van Gisbergen ran among the top five the entire race and showed that his improvement on ovals is real.

Todd Gilliland's Cinderella run continues

Fresh off signing a contract extension with Front Row Motorsports, Gilliland advanced to the final of the In-Season Challenge with an eighth-place finish at North Wilkesboro, well ahead of Chase Elliott (17th).

While Elliott was among the contenders until an untimely caution during the middle of green-flag stops in Stage 2 put him multiple laps down, Gilliland kept his nose clean and put together a phenomenal drive as his pursuit of the $1M prize in the head-to-head, bracket-style challenge comes down to one final battle against Ryan Blaney, whose 11th-place finish was enough to eliminate Christopher Bell (19th).

North Wilkesboro delivers nostalgic return

Considering the 0.625-mile speedway sat dormant for over two decades since its most recent points-paying race in 1996, it never seemed like there would be another race contested there.

However, after pulling the track out of the ruins and contesting three straight All-Star races there, Sunday night delivered nostalgia on many levels and gave a sold-out crowd the racing it never thought it would see again at the historic track in a points-paying environment.

Even though Logano dominated out front, drivers were able to run all over the track and put together some exciting battles throughout the field. It was an old-school feel with the long green-flag runs and it showed that North Wilkesboro is more than deserving of staying on the schedule.