NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- Joey Logano returned to form in Sunday night's NASCAR Cup Series race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, dominating and winning the Window World 450.

Logano snapped a 45-race winless streak in a big way, leading the most laps he has ever led (323) in a single race in his 636-race career and getting his first win of the 2026 season. 

More importantly, for Logano's hopes of a fourth Cup Series championship, he went from eight points below the cutline to 49 points above it.

"A win anywhere sounds great but especially at North Wilkesboro. [Crew chief] Paul Wolfe brought a great car, the team was smooth," Logano said.

Combined with winning the second stage and finishing third in the first stage and the three-time champion is now 49 points above the cutline -- instead of eight below -- in what has been one of the worst seasons of his career. 

Logano was quiet in the first stage, quietly watching Ty Gibbs nip Shane van Gisbergen for the 10 bonus points on lap 80. Even when Logano grabbed the lead for eight laps at the start of the second stage, he lost it to 'SVG' for 19 laps. 

As the run went on, Logano's speed showed, taking the lead from SVG on lap 113 of 450 -- and never releasing control of the race. 

Including the three editions of the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, Logano has won two of the last three Cup Series races at the historic 5/8-mile track.

"It's something that clicks for us. Paul puts together a good car and I know what it takes to go fast here. I knew coming into this week, we gotta capitalize. A win is great but we needed those points," Logano said.

Entering North Wilkesboro, Logano ranked sixth for average points earned per short track race this season. Denny Hamlin ranked second and used his might to try to overtake Logano, who took notice.

"The pressure was there for sure. Denny got really good that last run. Honestly, it was whoever was up front in that last run. This feels good," Logano said.

During the final cycle of pit stops, he pitted a lap earlier than Logano and never let the three-time champion get more than a second ahead of him while they lapped all but four other cars in the 37-car field. 

After the race, Hamlin walked over to Logano to give him his props for the win.

"You just gotta compliment him on a great day, great drive. I thought my car was close, where it needed to be, but didn't have enough. I kept him honest. Great job by my Progressive team to keep me in the game," Hamlin said. "Wildly impressive drive by him, getting through traffic well and doing everything we know Joey [Logano] can do."

Hamlin didn't win but he extended his points lead to 68 over Tyler Reddick and 87 over Ryan Blaney. Reddick finished 30th, five laps down, with a bent tie rod, while Blaney finished 11th, two laps down, after a speeding penalty. 

STAGE ONE TOP-10 (LAP 80): Ty Gibbs, Shane van Gisbergen, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Carson Hocevar, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, William Byron.

STAGE TWO TOP-10 (LAP 265); Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace, Shane van Gisbergen, Carson Hocevar, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, Todd Gilliland, Daniel Suarez. 

TOP-10 FINISHERS (LAP 450): Joey Logano (323 laps led), Denny Hamlin (nine laps led), Chase Briscoe (five laps led), Ty Gibbs (47 laps led), Shane van Gisbergen (49 laps led), Bubba Wallace (eight laps led), Brad Keselowski (seven laps led), Todd Gilliland, Daniel Suarez (led one lap), Ryan Preece.

Only Hamlin, Logano, Briscoe, Gibbs, SVG and Wallace finished on the lead lap after a caution for Alex Bowman and Tyler Reddick crashing on lap 184 trapped most of the field a lap down, including Christopher Bell who many expected to contend for a win.

While many expected Bell to run well Sunday, not many people expected SVG to:

With 15 stage points earned, SVG is now 54 points above the cutline with five races until the Chase. 

"When I took the lead, I got genuinely excited. Amazing to get stage points and an awesome race," SVG said, referring to when he said, "I'm leading, I don't know what the ---- to do," over the race.

Briscoe and Gibbs each had their own comeback. Briscoe finished third after starting 30th, while Gibbs overcame a speeding penalty in the first stage and received the free pass in the second stage to finish fourth. 

Keselowski's seventh-place finish is his first top-10 finish since Kansas Speedway in April. However, he has 58 points to make up to get into the Chase. RFK Racing teammate Preece also had a top-10 finish but has 48 points to make up. 

While RFK Racing had multiple cars finish inside the top-10, Hendrick Motorsports didn't have any cars finish inside the top-10 or on the lead lap.

In fact, none of their cars finished within a lap of the leader: William Byron finished 12th (two laps down), Kyle Larson finished 15th (two laps down), Chase Elliott finished 17th (three laps down) and Alex Bowman finished 26th (four laps down). 

Bell and Chris Buescher finished 19th and 20th, each three laps down, after Bowman was involved in one of three cautions for an incident, according to timing and scoring:

Nemechek finished 31st, five laps down, while Berry finished 36th, out of the race after completing 199 laps.

Ross Chastain, who showed speed in practice but had to serve a drive-through penalty at the start of the race, finished 27th, four laps down. He was on the lead lap to start the second stage but the Bowman caution and being back in the pack hurt his finish.

Joey Logano won the NASCAR Cup Series Window World 450 race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Here are the full results:

NEXT: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, July 26 (2 p.m. ET; TNT, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90).