“They didn’t really have the pace to compete, so they capitalized on that,” William Byron said in Las Vegas. The hot topic of the NASCAR town is how Joey Logano snatched a berth in the Championship 4 race. The last two weeks have been dreamy for Team Penske – Logano vaulted from an eliminated spot to back in the playoffs and finally became a solid championship contender. This baffles Cup Series veteran Dale Earnhardt Jr as well.

As Byron emphasized, Logano’s pace could not match his or Christopher Bell’s in the South Point 400. But the benefits of having a solid team, a few cautions miraculously falling in place, and a well-executed fuel mileage strategy surfaced. This sequence of extraordinary events is still having Dale Earnhardt Jr scratching his head.

Logano’s shocker makes Dale Earnhardt Jr’s jaws drop

A few weeks ago, the No. 22 Ford team was mired in the back of the field. Although Joey Logano clinched the Atlanta playoff opener, he followed it up with four consecutive miserable finishes. Talladega was the worst, where the final stage saw 25+ cars, including Logano’s wreck, in a smoking pile-up – he finished 33rd. Those results initially prevented Logano from advancing into the Round of 8, as he lost a points battle with Tyler Reddick at the Charlotte Roval. But the cards shuffled to favor him – Alex Bowman was disqualified as the No. 48 failed the minimum weight requirement in a post-race inspection.

Logano’s unexpected bounce back into the playoffs with a win – shuffled the championship hopefuls’ list wildly. This bewildered Dale Earnhardt Jr, who harped on Team Penske’s incredible fortune in a Dale Jr Download episode. “The only part that I can’t get over is – he wasn’t in until the 48 got penalized. And then he gets in through that penalty, and then he goes and wins. I mean, when the checkered flag fell at the Roval, him winning this race would have mattered none. But now, he’s going to race for a championship. That, to me, is the hard part to come to terms with.” 

The South Point 400 race was supposed to be Christopher Bell’s story. But a series of events – Ty Gibbs’ spin, Reddick and Chase Elliott’s crash in stage 2, and Kyle Larson’s messy pit stops – granted Logano the advantage. Dale Earnhardt Jr is not so bothered by the race as he is by its consequences. “I’m not really bothered that he only led a couple of laps or he only won this race and that race at a happenstance or whatever. I can deal with that sort of clunky oddness in sports, right? It happens. Rarely, but it does. It’s like a Hail Mary, or anything else – a lucky bounce or immaculate reception – all those kinds of funky little moments. But how he has now found himself in the Final 4 over the last two weeks… is hard for me to comprehend.”

Contrary to Dale Earnhardt Jr’s baffled reaction, one Hendrick Motorsports driver expected Logano’s resurgent threat.

Alarm bells rang out in the garage

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Joey Logano‘s shock advance into the 2024 Championship 4 has hardly been a first. In 2022, the Next-Gen car debuted and produced 19 different winners. The No. 22 Ford clinched four wins but lacked consistency. He posted 17 top-tens and 11 top-fives, only barely a recipe for a championship favorite. Yet that year’s fortunes played out similarly to 2024. Logano won the Las Vegas playoff race to book his Final 4 seat. It allowed Paul Wolfe and the entire team to focus on Phoenix. In the meantime, the rest of the field battled until Martinsville. So this season, after Kyle Larson saw his teammate’s ill luck translate into a golden opportunity for Logano, he knew.

Like Brad Keselowski’s spotter dubbed Logano to be ‘dangerous’ in the playoffs, Larson also agreed. He quipped after winning the Charlotte Roval race: “Joey is dangerously good. You can never count him out anywhere. He’s the guy that gets the benefit of (Bowman’s DQ) and it’s like, ‘Dang, man, he’s a tough competitor.’ He’s one you have to keep your eye on.” Sure enough, Larson’s suspicions turned true, and he hailed the 22 team for a superior performance in Sin City. “Again, they prove they’re the best at taking an average car and maximizing their day and turning it into wins like this. You look at his career and he’s had a lot of wins like that. Hats off to them. That’s super impressive to gamble like that and lock yourself in.”

Evidently, Joey Logano’s progress to the penultimate race of 2024 is still turning heads. While Dale Earnhardt Jr continues to be baffled, Logano will be scripting his third Cup title bid.