“Got to Dig Themselves Out”: Why Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski Need to Improve and Improve Quickly

What started off with Chris Buescher’s back-to-back victories last year was clearly the resurgence of the Fords. However, it doesn’t look like the teams have carried over the momentum to this year. Three races in, neither Joey Logano nor Brad Keselowski, the two most experienced Ford drivers in the entire field, have been able to finish inside the top-5, let alone win. According to NASCAR veteran Jeff Burton, they are in a hole and they need to dig themselves out of it.

Burton isn’t wrong though. Logano and Keselowski failed to finish this year’s Daytona 500 and had to settle for a 32nd and a 33rd place finish, respectively. Come Atlanta, the RFK Racing owner again got slammed with a DNF and a P33 finish, while Logano’s day ended with a 28th-place finish.

However, the sun in Las Vegas shone somewhat brighter for the duo. While Keselowski secured a P14 finish, Logano was able to come inside the top 10. According to Burton, that’s indeed a good thing. And here’s why.

“When you come out of the first two races with the issues that they had, to go have a solid race that you can build off of, I think that’s exceptionally important,” he explained. “Did they have race-winning speed? They did not. Did they perform the way that Joey Logano and his team expected? No, they didn’t. But they got points, they had a consistent day, they didn’t have major issues. Now they have something that they can go build on.”

“Points matter. I don’t care what anybody says; points matter. They dug themselves a hole with the first two races. They gotta dig themselves out and this was a start of digging themselves out,” he added.

Steve Letarte agrees with Burton but reveals the biggest woe for the Ford stars

While Letarte agreed with Burton about the importance of points, he also stated that it’s extremely difficult for them to dig out of that hole. And it’s just because of how competitive the field has gotten this year.

Drivers like Corey LaJoie, Noah Gragson, and Austin Dillon, who the fans don’t usually see running up top, had a solid day at Las Vegas. On that note, Letarte said, “When I looked through the field, I think it’s closer than ever. If you ignore Larson and Reddick who ran 1-2 in both stages, the rest of it…think of the names we consistently don’t see up there; Corey LaJoie ran well all day long until he had his issues late. Carson Hocevar finished nearly as high as he had run at any point. Austin Dillon, Noah Gragson..as those teams improve, they’re taking points from someone.”

The question remains whether Keselowski and Logano be able to shake off the dust from their firesuits and compete for the win at Phoenix next week.