Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano has not had a title-contending season.
Check that, Logano has not had a championship regular season.
Good thing for him that once a driver secures a spot in the playoffs, the reset allows for new life to win a title.
NASCAR’s playoff system, which eliminates the four drivers who didn’t win and have the fewest points in the three-race rounds as it whittles the championship-eligible drivers from 16 to four to compete for the title at Phoenix, creates a survive-and-advance dynamic.
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Logano knows that all too well as he has made the playoffs in nine of the past 10 years, including five appearances in the championship (unfortunately for him, it has been on even-numbered years) and two titles.
The Team Penske driver talked to FOX Sports about his season, how to manage the playoffs, whether he enjoys the challenge this season has presented (hint: he does not) and why he doesn’t have possession of his 2022 Cup Series trophy at the moment.
I can’t figure out your season because when I look at stats, you’ve got (now) eight top-5s, 13 top-10s and eight finishes outside the top 20. So how would you describe this season?
Well, you said it. It’s a roller coaster all the way through — just too many bad finishes within the few decent ones that we’ve had. We haven’t had as much speed as we need up to this point. But I also know I’ve been in this position many times before going into the playoffs where you don’t have the most bonus points or playoff points, and we may not have the most speed at that time, but as long as you have that execution piece of if a team is in the right spot where you can go out there and execute the first two rounds, get yourself to the Round of 8, that buys you enough time to get some speed up in your cars. And hopefully, by then you can be fast enough to win some races. And, ultimately, you really need to win two of them — one to get in and probably one to win the championship as well. So we just have got to stay alive. I think that’s the goal here the first six weeks or so.
There was one stat I thought that maybe told me about your season is that you have eight penalties for entering pit road too soon this year? Why?
That must be because we wrecked. That’s not a good stat, is it?
Is it from trying to push things too hard? Are you getting caught up in things when you’re in the middle of the pack? And just how dicey it gets back there?
It’s some of that, right? We’re trying to make up for a bit of a speed loss. Some of it’s just wrong place, wrong time. But if you’re up toward the front, you usually don’t get caught up in much. But it seems like this year, we’ve been able to find ourselves in the middle of some stuff every now and again.
You are the defending champ. Do you have any swagger? Is there any swagger after the first 26 races this year?
I still say it’s the same me. Whether that’s swagger or not, I guess it’s up to you guys to determine. But for me, it’s the same approach that we’ve had going into the playoffs, whether we won the championship last year or we lost it. It’s nice to know that we’ve done it before a couple of times, and we know how to do it and get to the Championship 4, so that part gives a little bit more confidence — swagger if you want to call it that. But outside of that, it’s the same approach as usual. This team has been around for a long time to go through enough ups and downs together as one team and also separately in different parts of everyone’s career that we know if we just can survive long enough, we’ll be in good shape.
Joey Logano discusses his approach to Cup Series playoffs
The playbook from last year — survive and advance and then win as early as you can in the third round and put yourself in a position to hopefully do something at Phoenix?
You make it sound really easy. That’s the game plan.
It hasn’t changed at all?
That is just the way everybody goes about it now, right? If you can survive, win one along the way, great and get some more playoff points, great. I think the first race of each round is the most important race because that kind of sets you up for the other ones. If you can leave above the cutline by 30-plus points, you’re pretty good for the next two weeks to where you can just be smart and not have to do anything too crazy. You live on that cutline. It’s an uncomfortable place to be, for sure, but it also doesn’t allow the team look too far forward in those moments.
The way you’ve run this year, do you kind of feel like your back has been against the wall a little bit already? So I assume the playoff pressure will be about the same?
Yes. I think it’s going to be 10 tough weeks. It always is. Doesn’t make any difference. I’ve seen plenty of teams that have a bunch of playoff points and get knocked out in the first two rounds. And vice versa, vice versa on both ways. So to me, it’s the same approach.
Where do you think that your team has improved this year?
I think as a team, we’ve done a good job of trying to identify where the speed is in the car. It’s hard to progress a lot throughout a year because we don’t have practice anymore, we don’t have the testing anymore. So It’s hard to really identify what we need in our race car everywhere.
So as challenging as that’s been, and it sometimes feels like slow growth, there’s been growth there. And we’ve been kind of making some steps in understanding what makes our cars go faster. Now we still feel like we’re not where we need to be on our setups and those type of things, and obviously, as a manufacturer, we’re a little bit behind as well, too. So we’re trying to overcome a couple of hurdles at the same time. But I think we’re getting closer to figuring those answers out.
“We have to get back to our winning ways”
You’re a guy who loves to win. You’d probably love to lead every lap and dominate. You’ve had those times. Is there any love in the challenge of the way you’ve performed this year and trying to get better?
No. No. I just want to win. I’m OK with an easy win. That doesn’t bother me at all. But the drive to want to win so bad is what keeps me going. That’s what keeps you fighting and looking for more. The only fun part, to me, about racing is winning. And so we have to get back to our winning ways that we know how to do.
So the challenge is not fun?
I don’t enjoy the challenge. I enjoy the victory. Enjoying the challenge sounds like something a loser would say. I disagree 100 percent on that. I love winning.
Some people do relish the challenge but maybe because they haven’t won as much?
It’s because they haven’t won yet. You win, you really love that part a lot more. I promise. Celebrating a championship or race wins is much better than saying it was a fun challenge this year. I don’t believe that.
Speaking of wins, you have your two Cup trophies. Do they each have an equal presence in your house?
Our second championship trophy is still going on the tour with the guys. Every time we’ve won so far, everybody’s gotten to take the trophy for a week and have some fun with it. Do whatever you want. Take some pictures, make a cool yearbook at the end is what we try to do. Have it like they do with the Stanley Cup, right? I don’t care. I got it insured. Have fun with the thing. It’s going to come back with scratches and not be as pretty, but I wasn’t going to win it without anybody else.
And so it’s neat to see those stories and memories that they’re able to make with their families and taking it and doing some crazy things with it, for sure. It’s kind of still going on that tour every now and again. So one of them is sitting there [in his shop] and the other one is kind of in a box right now ready for the next person.
So when will you get it?
Probably by the end of the year.
Joey Logano reveals where his 2022 Cup championship trophy is located
You were 18th at Darlington, sixth at Kansas earlier this year. How do you look at that first round?
Darlington is one of our best racetracks. You say 18th. We wrecked when we were running fourth there in what we thought was the final restart — it was the first green-white-checker and we got smooshed into the wall. [Martin] Truex [Jr.] got us there. It is what it is. What are you going to do? But we were in the hunt, at least in contention. So I look forward to that racetrack. Kansas has been kind of hit or miss for us, but I feel like we’ve made some progress on that track here recently. So I look forward to those two. And then we’ll see where we are for Bristol.
You’ve been racing for 15 years already? Do you have 10 or 15 more in you?
I don’t know. I’d like to think I have quite a few years left in me. To the point earlier, as long as I’m winning, I’m going to probably keep doing it. Once I realize I can’t win anymore, I’m probably going to hang it up and do something else that I can win at. So I probably will just kind of wait and see. But for now, I know I’m here for a little bit and obviously just coming off the championship, so still a lot of good years ahead of me. I’m only 33. So I’ve been doing it for 15 years, but I’ve got some time ahead of me and see where life goes.
You have 533 starts in the Cup Series. I imagine there were times when you didn’t know that you’d get to that. When you hear those type of numbers, what does it say about your journey?
It’s kind of crazy to think that there’s been that many races just because I remember early in my career when [Matt] Kenseth and Tony [Stewart] and these other guys hit their 500th start and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of races. Holy crap.’ Now to be that guy, it’s like that’s what probably these other kids are saying about me now. It’s an interesting place to be. I guess the Ironman deal is achievable for me. So maybe that will happen. We’ll see. … Consecutive starts I have a chance. It’s 700-something, isn’t it?
(We look it up) … 797 Jeff Gordon?
Yeah, I can do that. It’s a few years away.
About seven or eight years away?
That’d be cool. It doesn’t pay anything, but it would be cool.
But would it be fun? Or would you have to win a bunch?
If I win a bunch in between now and then, we’ll have fun. If not? Ehh.
What To Watch For
Looking at last year’s race, it was all about the playoff drivers who opened the playoffs with problems … and a new winner in Erik Jones.
Darlington traditionally is a tough track, and with playoff drivers trying to get as many points as possible, it lends itself to mistakes or just unfortunate circumstances. Will drivers take it a little tamer this year?
Bob Pockrass’ playoff picks: Who makes it out of each round and who wins the Cup Series title?
Probably not. It’s the playoffs. And while it is a survive-and-advance opening round where drivers or teams often take themselves out of contention with mistakes, it also can be viewed as go hard or go home.
Logano, Erik Jones and William Byron have won the Darlington races of the Next Gen era. Of the elimination playoff era since 2014, these active drivers have won playoff races at Darlington: Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin (twice), Jones (twice), Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick.
Thinking Out Loud
NASCAR not penalizing Brad Keselowski for driving around in circles while under the red flag at Daytona so that he could put out a possible fire in his car was an interesting decision by the sanctioning body.
Keselowski didn’t advance his position under red, he didn’t help his car except for potentially putting out a fire, he didn’t exit his car and he didn’t put any safety vehicles in harm’s way.
But Keselowski did keep his car going with the move and that could be considered like a pit stop. And yes it was for safety, but should he have been sent to the rear for the move?
The impact, though, is If NASCAR penalizes Keselowski, would drivers be more apt to wait until too late to potentially put out a fire in that situation? It was the red flag that likely caused the fire in the sense of the hot cars sitting stationary.
The call seems to be the right call in the spirit of the rules while borderline wrong call by the letter of the law. Maybe NASCAR needs to come out with a list of permissible things drivers can do under the red flag that would not constitute a penalty.
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They Said It
“I surely feel confident about our ability to drive through the playoffs and feel like we can certainly be a contender in this thing.” —Chris Buescher, who has won three of the past five Cup Series races
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass, and sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass.
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