Gateway a missed opportunity for Joey Logano in NASCAR's championship fight

As he led early in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race, Joey Logano was, at one point, third in the Cup Series standings. 

For a driver who was 20th in the standings at the end of June, that was remarkable. 

But it was Kyle Larson, not Logano, who won Sunday's Enjoy Illinois 300 at Gateway and gained ground on points leader Denny Hamlin. Logano finished third, but leaves Gateway seventh in the Cup Series standings, 49 points back of Hamlin. 

Larson passed Logano, who started from the pole, for the lead late in the race, and despite having two late restarts where he was on Larson's inside, Logano was unable to make a move and take the top spot back. 

How Joey Logano lost at Gateway

"His first three laps of every run was pretty spectacular," Logano told USA Network. "You had a bunch of three-lap runs there at the end. Once he got there, then the 48 got there, then the 24 got there, I had no homies with me... on my own. All I could hope was that Bowman really, really wanted to win and would sling her off in there. That was my only chance. 

"Larson just got a good restart and cleared. There was nothing I could do to manipulate anything. It's a good run, right? Thinking about what the 25 points would feel like right about now, it does sting some."

Logano has come on strong over the last two months and established himself as a title threat, but a win on Sunday would've done wonders for his championship hopes.