Joey Logano earns leverage to prepare ahead of NASCAR rivals following Atlanta win 

Joey Logano got his playoff campaign to a flying start following his win in Alanta. It was Logano's second triumph of the 2024 season and it saw him seal his place in the Round of 12 of the playoffs.

Among other Team Penske drivers, defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney finished third while Austin Cindric came tenth.

The 34-year-old's win at Atlanta further essentially ensured that his team could focus on the next round before his rivals. This was something Logano's crew chief Paul Wolfe spoke about during an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

"We've been fortunate over the years to do this a couple of times. And the importance of being able to win that first race in whatever round it is, is good and gives us time to focus on the next round a couple of weeks sooner, try to make sure that we've done everything we can as we approach the next round and it gets tougher and tougher for each round we go through," Wolfe said.

Speaking about their Atlanta win, the crew chief claimed it was "a great team effort", and acknowledged Ryan Blaney's help on the last restart.

Wolfe said they would continue to build on that, and part of their goal is to help the other Team Penske drivers' playoff cause.

"Do whatever we can to help the #12 and the #2 advance as well and like I said, we've already started looking forward to Kansas, the guys directly on my team, we know we have our work cut out as we get to that race. It's not a strong showing for us early this year, helps to be able to get a jumpstart on that," the crew chief added.

Joey Logano's win marks his second straight top-10 finish after successive DNFs at Daytona and Darlington. Ryan Blaney's third-place finish brought an end to his streak of two DNFs, while Austin Cindric secured onlt his fourth top-10 finish of the season and his first since the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

"This was one we had circiled as an important race for us" - Joey Logano's team's competition director on Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart

After the second win of the season for the #22 team and Joey Logano, the competition director of Team Penske spoke about Atlanta. Travis Geisler claimed he was aware that they needed to execute at Atlanta.

"This was one we had circled as an important race for us to, if you didn’t win, you needed to gather up a lot of points, and I feel great about the only car that didn’t gather up a ton of stage points got the win, so we kind of executed that as needed" Geisler said.

He further added that sometimes luck is on one's side, and emphasized that Team Penske was a team "built for the playoffs."

All of the three Team Penske drivers have fared well so far this season, winning at least one race. While defending champion Ryan Blaney currently leads the Cup Series standings with 2072 points to his name, Joey Logano stands fifth while Austin Cindric is seventh.

All three will next be seen in action at the Go Bowling at the Glen in Watkins Glen, New York.