NASCAR is heading to the season finale at Phoenix and this would be the 6th time Joey Logano has made it to the championship 4 since the elimination format was introduced in 2014. No other active driver has achieved this feat! Logano is also the only multiple-time Cup Champion among the four contestants. However, the way Logano’s 2024 season was going, reaching the finale seemed like a bleak possibility.

If you look at the stats, Logano only finished in the top 5 just four times this season! Four out of 25 races is unlike the 2022 champion. This reflected in the playoffs as, other than his win in the opening race at Atlanta, his campaign was mediocre until the round of 8. Thrice he finished 28th or worse in the playoffs. However, throughout the season, the Logano faction seems to bring their best game when it’s needed the most. While many are crediting his Championship 4 appearance to luck, Logano disagrees!

Joey Logano on why he is deserving of the Championship 4 berth

The #22 team only bagged just one win in the regular season, but that was enough to make it to the playoffs. Similarly, the win in the Atlanta race was enough to reach the next round. However, in round 2, Logano was in a pickle entering the eliminator at ROVAL. With -13 points below the cutline, the #22 faction had to bring their A-game. And that is exactly what they did. After four consecutive finishes outside the top 10, Logano got a P8 at ROVAL, which initially did not prove enough but kept him next in line in case someone was eliminated.

To his good fortune, Alex Bowman’s car failed post-race weight inspection, giving Logano his spot. While luck is a factor in this, Logano believes that they were always in contention since the HMS driver had an illegal entry. Then the Penske driver won the round three opener at Las Vegas and booked a spot in the top 4, now eyeing his third championship.

Ahead of the final race, Joey Logano opened up on the Bowman incident, explaining how it was not luck that put him in round 3. Logano on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio said, “If we all are supposed to be playing on an equal playing field, they pushed it too far and you get dinged for it. Like we all push it far and however it happened I don’t know, but they went too far in NASCAR to put the foot down. And we were next in line, does that make us lucky? No. We were next in line for a reason and we had a race against a car that wasn’t legal. So we had the spot the whole time in my opinion.”

The Penske driver is of the opinion that no one makes it to the final 4 without deserving it. And if the 6-time finalist is saying that, we can take his word for it. “Nobody makes it to the championship 4 for not in a deserving way. You have to get here somehow. Everyone has this same opportunity when we roll into February Daytona. Everybody has the same opportunity to get to championship 4, no matter how you get there. But we all have the same opportunity to get there. So we came in as maybe not the number one seed or maybe not even the number 10. But we figured out how to get through the rounds and now we are here. So everyone has the same opportunities to do that,” Logano added.

Luck or no luck, there is no denying that Logano is one of the most successful active drivers in the Cup Series. The 35-time Cup Series race winner is 4th in standing after Kyle Busch (63), Denny Hamlin (54), and Brad Keselowski (36). Logano has a strong chance to equal the wins with Keselowski after the Phoenix race and also become the driver with the most amount of championships amongst the active ones. However, a driver who can prove to be a thorn in this journey is the defending champion and his teammate, Ryan Blaney. But in contrast, according to Logano, the two teams are prepping together for the championship race.

Teamwork continues as championship chances have doubled for Penske

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Ryan Blaney won the dramatic Martinsville race, making it Penske domination in the championship 4. And Team Penske has clearly got an upper hand amongst the four divers. Blaney and Logano are former champions whereas Tyler Reddick and William Byron haven’t yet won a title. Other than the experience difference, Blaney is coming off a win and momentum can definitely be a factor in giving Penske the upper hand. Lastly, Blaney has the best average finish among all active drivers at the Phoenix Raceway. The #12’s average finish on the track since 2021 is 4.1 compared to Byron’s 10.3, Logano’s 12.1 and Reddick’s 15.6.

However, some think that the drivers with the most amount of preparation time have the upper hand. Logano, after winning Kansas, had 2 weeks to prep for the final race, naturally giving him an advantage. And thankfully for Penske, the #22 team is helping in expediting the prep process for the #12 team. On this Logano said, “Yeah, I mean, it’s an advantage to just get the team working that direction already. While Paul (Wolfe, Logano crew chief) and our engineers have been focused 100% on Phoenix the last two weeks, that allows (Johnathan) Hassler (Blaney crew chief) to be able to kind of lean on those guys a little bit what we’ve been studying and working on.”

If team Penske wins another championship, it would be Penske’s 5th and Logano’s 3rd. However, the #22 has put his team’s goals ahead of his. “Yeah, I mean, obviously it would be great. I guess when it comes to individually, I don’t think about it that much. I think of it more of a team ’cause I know what a championship is worth to everybody. I think that matters more…But I’d like to see the people that I care about at our race team celebrate,” Logano added.

Do you think Team Penske can win the 2024 championship? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.