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TALLADEGA, Ala. -- It has been The Joey Logano Show in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup over the past couple weeks, as the Team Penske driver has won two straight races in the Contender Round at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway. The yellow No. 22 seems to have regained its strength after its season-opening Daytona 500 victory, accumulating five wins that tie Matt Kenseth for a series-best in 2015.
But as Logano celebrates in a shower of confetti, his Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski -- who hasn't won since March -- is left peering in from outside Victory Lane. "Bad Brad" has been relatively quiet this year without the post-race fireworks amid six victories last season, including one in the first race of the 2014 Chase at Chicagoland and the Talladega Chase race last year.
Compared with Logano's handful of wins, particularly in recent weeks, the gap between the two begs the question: What's the No. 2 team missing?
"I'm happy for Joey and his success, so I'm not discouraged by it," Keselowski said on Friday. "I feel like this sport cycles. ... Last year up until we had the issue at Martinsville, we had six wins, we had the most wins of anyone last year, and I felt my cars were probably some of the best in the garage, if not the best, and the last few weeks we haven't showcased that.
"But I know it can cycle. It could cycle in the next three weeks."
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If he can survive Sunday's CampingWorld.com 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM) the next three weeks will be the most crucial for Keselowski's No. 2 team, as he could be fighting for his second Sprint Cup Series championship. Keselowski's outlook remains positive – he has 21 top-10 finishes this season, including Auto Club Speedway victory. He also sat on the pole last week at Kansas and showed plenty of speed throughout the weekend during practice.
It was something the No. 22 team noticed.
"Are there things that (the No. 2 team members) lean on? No differently than we normally do," Logano's crew chief Todd Gordon said in the Talladega garage on Saturday. "... We used a lot of what the 2 car had last weekend. They had a lot of speed at Kansas in qualifying and practice. So we're always aware of those things."
Logano and Keselowski are one of the more teamwork-minded duos in the garage, working together on-track more than many Cup team members. The same philosophy carries into the Team Penske shop meetings, Gordon says.
"We share everything every week -- We're aware of what everyone is doing," Gordon said. "You have ebs and flows and I think there's been a couple things with this year and the way the races have played out that have played to Joey's strengths. You have come-and-go and momentum changes different ways.
"I don't think the 2 car's got challenges ahead of them. They're definitely a title contender as well."
For Keselowski, the title talk that surrounds his teammate and close friend doesn't diminish his own season – if anything, it's heartening as he heads into the foreboding Talladega and the rest of the season.
"It's encouraging for me in the sense that we know we have the same potential that we just have to find it," Keselowski said. "I think our teams operate quite a bit differently and I would say it's probably encouraging for my team to try new things and to be better and expand. So I don't take any negative from it. I'm certainly not happy to not be winning as much as he is, but that's not a negative connotation. I think it's an opportunity more so than anything else.
" ... I really feel like for our team that if we can get through this weekend, that we'll go all the way to Homestead."