After top-five finishes at Lowe's Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, things were just OK the past two weeks at Texas Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway. I finished 19th at Texas, and that was tough. We knew that was going to happen. That's our toughest racetrack. The corners are really long, and you're trying to work on a few different things at the same time. There's no grip, and the track really changes a lot through the day.

Phoenix was a so-so 21st for the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota. It's nowhere as good as I wanted. I thought we'd be a lot better. We practiced really good and found some things that changed after the race that hurt us. I guess we were lucky to come out with what we had, but it wasn't what we wanted.

Jimmie Johnson apparently wasn't happy with trying to lap me with about 60 laps remaining. I was just trying to stay on the lead lap. I think he thought that I was trying to hold him up for my Joe Gibbs Racing teammate because Denny Hamlin was running second. But I didn't even know Denny was running second. I was running my line.

I didn't even know he was mad at me. I just thought I'd do my deal, and if he's faster, he can get underneath me. Once he got underneath me, I let him go. I raced him one corner and let him go. I didn't feel like I was holding him up unless I was racing door to door. I was just fighting to stay on the lead lap. After that, I let everybody else go because at that point, you're down a lap, and it didn't really matter.

I heard Jimmie wasn't pleased in an interview, but I didn't talk to him this week. I was just trying to stay on the lead lap until the caution came out, and we'd be back in the game and be all right. That's what anyone was going to do. At that point, we were just fast enough to stay where we were ahead of Jimmie. It was back and forth every lap. Eventually, I got loose and he got underneath me. I don't feel I affected the race. The end was the same as it was going to be.

This weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, I'll run my 57th and 58th NASCAR races this season. It's the most races I've ever ran in my life in one year. But I'm fine. What else am I going to be doing? I'm a racer and want to race all the time so it's not a big deal. I'm good to go.

It'll be nice to have a break, but I'm ready to go. It's not physically taxing, just time consuming, but I like to race, so it's good. Some weekends have been crazy running from the Nationwide car to the Sprint Cup car. Besides that, there's been nothing too surprising in my rookie year. You just don't have the spare time at the track.

For JGR's Camrys to be better next year, I just feel we need more front grip to get the car turning better. That's the big deal. It seems like we don't have many issues putting the back end of the car in the racetrack. It's getting it to turn in the front. That's what everyone struggles with. I'm sure that the Hendrick cars are struggling with it, they're just turning better. It's probably the same problem, they're just a step ahead. It's something they found.

This sport goes in cycles. You've seen it go back and forth a few times. We'll all find it. All these cars are so much better now than a year ago. Everyone's still looking for improvements, but it's hard to get that little bit more.

I'll be attending my last rookie meeting for a while, and I'm going to miss it. I'll miss Sprint Cup director John Darby telling me what to do. But I guess I'll still get that anyway if I mess up.

It'll be different not having the yellow rookie stripe on the back of my car, too. I've had a rookie stripe on my car more than I haven't. I've gotten used to that part of it.

Enlarge By Darrell Ingham, Getty Images Joey Logano is in position to finish his rookie campaign in the top 20 in points, ranking 19th heading into the season finale.