The Round of 8’s playoff decider delivered an unexpected show. Kyle Larson beat the “world-class” road course talent of Shane van Gisbergen, dominating 62 laps of the Charlotte Roval race. His three teammates finished well – although Alex Bowman clinched the worst finish of 18th, he again accumulated the most points of any playoff driver. Yet NASCAR’s crushing penalty against him flipped the storyline entirely – making way for a possible threat to playoff drivers.

Joey Logano delivered an interview promising to spoil his playoff rivals’ winning plans. With Bowman’s ejection, the Team Penske driver will now be able to actually get in those drivers’ way. As a two-time Cup Series champion, he may prove to be a real thorn in the side of top seeds like Kyle Larson, as Brad Keselowski’s spotter argues.

Alex Bowman’s replacement can shuffle the field

The mixture of wildcard racetracks is a tough ordeal for the playoff grid anyway. The current batch of 8 drivers weathered massive storms to get to this point. For example, the Watkins Glen road course in the Round of 16 saw all playoff drivers wrecking out except for Chase Briscoe and Austin Cindric. Then Talladega Superspeedway lived up to its age-old wicked name as a 28-car crash left drivers smoked and battered. Now playoff contenders have a new threat in their midst – Joey Logano, who has way more experience than 8-time Cup winner Alex Bowman.

The Team Penske driver owns 34 Cup Series victories, including marquee race titles like the 2015 Daytona 500 or the All-Star Race (2016, 2024). What should be most worrying are his successful Championship runs in 2018 and 2022. After winning the Atlanta playoff race, Logano slumped a little in top-ten results, which brought him to a face-off with Tyler Reddick at Charlotte. But now that Alex Bowman‘s penalty dragged him back into the game, TJ Majors thinks he can leave a mark. He said in a Dale Jr Download episode: “This is dangerous, like putting Joey in here. This is the guy you want to see get eliminated as far as these other guys…that’s the guy they don’t want in there.” 

Brad Keselowski’s spotter expanded on how it has been a bumpy ride for drivers anyway. Having Atlanta and Watkins Glen in the same round was chaotic – Joey Logano narrowly escaped a multi-car crash at the Superspeedway for his win. “I don’t think you can have a plate race – I consider Atlanta a plate race – and a road course in the same round, especially back-to-back. We go to Atlanta and the first two stages basically set the next round…It’s a one-race playoff after that.”

And now Alex Bowman’s Round of 8 replacement is positioning himself in the offensive.

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Ryan Blaney was the only Team Penske driver leaving the Charlotte Roval at first. But then the 2023 defending Cup Series champion was not alone anymore after NASCAR brought down its post-race penalty on Alex Bowman. Joey Logano is back in the scene, and could not believe it when his phone started ringing on the way back home. After his Atlanta victory, Logano led laps in the three races that followed but could not fetch a top-ten finish. His outing at the Roval was solid – he piled up 18 stage points in a 47-point total effort.

So now that Alex Bowman allowed him back into the playoff grid, Joey Logano is rolling up his sleeves for a grand showdown. Despite being 11 points below the elimination line, Logano is determined to slice up that gap. “The stats may not look like it. It may look like we’re underdogs from the outset looking in, but internally we feel very confident in our race team that we can make a run at this thing and get ourselves into the Championship 4. We’ve seen it in the past where you get in there and anything can happen at Phoenix. The goal right now is to look at the next three races and how do we maximize that. We can point our way in…It can happen very quickly, so one race at a time. Right now, the focus is Vegas and we’ll try to maximize the day there.”

Evidently, TJ Majors’ suspicions may be correct. Joey Logano can be a solid threat to the playoff drivers – let us wait and see how this battle plays out.