Logano hopes Watkins Glen holds his key to the playoffs

RELATED: Driver standings | Playoff standings | Watkins Glen schedule CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- With four consecutive top-10 finishes, as well as a win, at Watkins Glen International, it's little wonder Joey Logano says this weekend's I Love New York 355 at the Glen "may be our best shot" at a victory and securing a spot in this year's Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. "Watkins Glen has really been, in all honesty, one of our best tracks the last couple of years," the Team Penske driver said Tuesday prior to a private screening of the movie "Logan Lucky" in Charlotte. "Finishing second (last year) and then winning the year before. We had a fast car last year; we actually could have won the race but ripped the splitter off the car and that kind of killed it. "I feel like we should be competitive this weekend. ... We'll fire away at it and see how we do." RELATED: Winless drivers who could punch playoff tickets at Watkins Glen Logano finds himself in a unique situation heading into the series' 22nd race of the season. A victory earlier this season at Richmond should have secured the No. 22 Ford team one of the 16 available spots in this year's playoffs. However, an L1-level penalty for rear suspension issues resulted in the win being "encumbered" by NASCAR, meaning it didn't count as one of the qualifiers necessary to secure a position in the playoffs. That leaves Logano, 27, needing another victory or a sufficient amount of points to qualify for the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year. Thirteen other drivers have at least one win this season, including three (Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kasey Kahne and Austin Dillon) not currently in the top 16 in the points standings. That means three drivers inside the top 16 on points – 10th-place Clint Bowyer, Logano (13th) and Erik Jones (16th) -- are still racing to earn a spot in the playoffs. RELATED: Playoff Watch heading into final five regular-season races Seen as a potential championship round contender prior to the season, Logano has struggled this season -- particularly after the Richmond setback. He and his team had seven top-10 finishes before the victory at RIR. Since then, he's finished outside the top 20 eight times and managed only three top 10s. "Speed's been an issue, no doubt," Logano said. "And it all starts with that. At Indy we had decent speed and were in position to possibly win that race with the right race strategy, cautions going the right way, all that. We were in position to win that race." Logano finished fourth at Indy. Last week's race at Pocono, where he wound up 27th, was a different story. "The speed we had at Pocono... We were going to fight for 10th. It's hard to win with a 10th-place car. You're really going to have to get lucky," he said. "We've got to get faster, no doubt." While a win would all but secure a berth in the playoffs, Logano said he and crew chief Todd Gordon aren't ready to "throw away points" by taking more risks than normal. "But we're getting closer to the point that we're going to have to win," he said. MORE: Logano's career statistics Only five more regular-season races remain before the playoffs begin at Chicagoland Speedway in September. Logano has won at four of the five. "All but Darlington," he noted. "We've done this before. We won Richmond this year; Bristol is one of our best tracks ... Michigan has been a good track, but the faster stuff hasn't been our forte, really. This year, at least." Sunday's race (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR) is the second and final appearance on a road course for the series this season. Logano finished 12th earlier this year at Sonoma, the first road-course stop for the series.