Joey Logano on ‘Big Three’: ‘We’re not quite at that level yet’

LOUDON, N.H. -- Joey Logano isn't a part of NASCAR's current "Big Three" of Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. -- but he may be close. The Team Penske driver has rebounded rather buoyantly this season, a year removed from missing the 2017 Playoffs amid his worst season with the Ford-backed organization. Logano is on pace for the second-best average finish of his career (10.4) and is just three top-10 finishes short of matching his '17 total of 17, with a win (Talladega), to boot. That's quite plentiful, given the aforementioned trio hasn't allowed much room at the head of the table for its competitors. Fourteen of the season's 19 races have been won by Busch, Harvick or defending series champ Truex, with track history pointing to one of them likely landing in Victory Lane again on Sunday in the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 (1 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, PRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio). MORE: Full New Hampshire schedule | Practice 1 speeds Logano's one of a small handful of drivers who could find his way to hurriedly sitting down in that fourth seat in what's shaping up to be a rather interesting game of musical chairs that will culminate in the season-ending finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. But it's still going to take some time. "We’re not quite at that point yet as a race team," Logano said Friday at the 'Magic Mile.' "We’re not far from it. … We can run in the top 10 about anywhere right now. We can make some top-five finishes every now and again, but we have to have a perfect day to win a race at this point. We have to have the perfect strategy; a great car that’s maximized to the best handling we can possibly make it. "There’s just no margin for error throughout the whole event for us right now. We just have to be on our game right now to be able to win races and I’m not saying we can’t, we just have to be perfect and it’s not easy -- not that it’s ever easy to win a race, but the margin that we’re working with right now isn’t as big as what you see those top three cars at that are able to be consistently fast even if their car may not be quite perfect." That margin is something every championship hopeful team – not just Logano's – will need to find, hastily, if they're to compete with the "Big Three." Each of those drivers has a championship and multiple Championship 4 appearances since the revamped playoff format debuted in 2014. Barring unforeseen circumstances, they'll be there again. RELATED: Playoffs standings | Logano's career statistics Busch, Harvick and Truex have been the gold standard at the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series level the whole season. With that territory, however, comes along the fact that teams are anxiously searching for ways to specifically beat them. They're still coming up short ... for now. “I’m surprised by it because we haven’t seen this in a long time to where three cars are that dominant and being able to win races," Logano said. "There are other cars that can lead laps, but it doesn’t seem like the right ones. It seems like (the "Big Three") always find a way to prevail at the end, whether it’s the speed in their car or their pit stops or restarts, whatever it may be they find themselves up front when it matters the most. Obviously, they can recover from mistakes pretty well because of their speed, so they’re just able to be there at the right times." Logano and the No. 22 crew are already provisionally locked into the 2018 NASCAR Playoffs, so the desperation the team faced at this point last year – in need of a win to qualify – is a distant memory. With seven races left in the regular season it allows the 28-year-old and his longtime crew chief Todd Gordon to tinker with things and try to manufacture ways to close that margin and pick up the speed to compete with NASCAR's elite on the grandest stage. It isn't just about improving from last year and still being in contention come Las Vegas, the playoff opener. He wants to take his talents to South Beach and make it count. “The fact that we’re locked in the playoffs is great, but that’s only one part of it. That’s not what the goal is. The goal isn’t to make the playoffs. The goal is to win the championship," Logano continued. " … We’re not quite at that level yet to make that happen. We can make that happen this year, we’ve just got to make some gains here and we’ve got to make them pretty quick because the playoffs are right down the road from where we are right now. "I think the mindset is always, ‘How can we be better? How can we work harder to find that advantage?’ That’s always a constant." From the sounds of it, Logano's focus, headspace and determination are in order. Now it all comes down to horsepower.