Joey Logano Refuses To Rule Out Vegas’ Significance As He Dissects Championship Ascend

An average finish of 17.1. Fifteenth in the regular season points standings. Stats like that do not scream ‘champion’. Yet, Joey Logano did the unthinkable when he won the grand finale in Phoenix and claimed the ultimate prize for the third time in his 16-year-long NASCAR career.

It might be easy to say the #22 driver caught a lucky break in the post-season since that’s where his chase took off in the bigger picture. But beating the Playoff format is no simple task, and now he’s done it thrice already. Indeed, Joey Logano has cracked the pattern. And when he opened up about his unbelievable run on the ‘Rubbin is Racing’ podcast, it became clear: everything kicked off for the #22 team at the Round of 8 opener in Las Vegas.

Joey Logano opens up about the Vegas moment that changed it all

For almost half of the 2024 season, Joey Logano did not look like a championship contender at all. He had only two top-5 finishes before Nashville. But then the 2024 Ally 400 made its way to Music City late in June, and once again the 34-year-old had made himself one driver to watch out for in the Playoffs. He was the ninth-seeded driver fighting for the championship when the post-season finally took flight with the Round of 16 openers in Atlanta. Then, he won that race and extended his Playoff run a little further with an automatic qualification into the next round of eliminations.

Logano almost did not go past the Round of 12, falling below the cutline following the Charlotte ROVAL. But after Alex Bowman’s car failed to make weight during the post-race inspections, Logano received the transfer spot, courtesy of the #48 Hendrick driver’s unfortunate disqualification. However, now he sat last in the Playoff standings, and theoretically, that meant he needed a miracle to make the Championship 4 in Phoenix. So, that’s what Joey Logano did—he pulled out a miracle in Las Vegas.

Winning to secure another automatic transfer into the Phoenix finale, Joey Logano stormed the Round of 8 opener in Sin City. That left him two extra weeks of preparations before the championship race–an advantage no other driver shared with Logano. Maybe winning Vegas was the best thing to happen to his Playoff push after Alex Bowman’s DQ. It was no fluke, but it certainly helped ease the pressure. Or in the words of Barstool Sports’ ‘Large,’ on the November 18th episode of Rubbin is Racing, that got the ‘monkey off his back in the Round of 8’. As for Logano, he elaborated to his hosts, “Would we have made the championship four if we didn’t win Vegas? It’s hard to say because the effort that went into Miami and Martinsville was zero. Because our focus was on Phoenix, because that was the advantage we earned.”

“We can go out and take that advantage from Vegas of locking in and focus two weeks sooner, and also have our batteries recharged,” asserted Logano. “You think about that, the other seven cars that were still trying to lock their way in, they got their tongues hanging out like it’s all they got while we’re just working on one car…. going through one setup.” He emphasized that to prepare better for that one race, the #22 team “spent four hours at the simulator doing nothing but pit road runs. Just rolling pit road, trying to maximize that.” 

There is no question. Joey Logano deserves his credit where credit’s due. He made the most of his opportunities. And he turned up when it mattered. Unfortunately, those two factors have become primary in this ‘win-and-you’re-in’ Playoff format, much to the delight of Logano. But beyond reaping the advantages of the Playoff system, the 2024 champion might have had the best crew chief in his corner this season–one Paul Wolfe. 

Inside the Team #22 ‘Wolfe’ pack

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Wolfe, a former Busch North Series driver from the early 2000s, has been an integral cog in Roger Penske’s NASCAR operations since 2010. He won the team their first NASCAR Cup Series championship with Brad Keselowski and the #2 team in 2012. Wolfe’s second came with Joey Logano and the #22 team in 2022. With the 2024 title, those two have now won their respective third championships together. Undoubtedly, Paul Wolfe is the tactical genius behind the ‘Lucky Logano’ brigade. After all, the guy has never gone winless, even a single season with Team Penske.

But there’s a lot more to it than luck. And Wolfe made it all clear in a recent interview with Kelly Crandall of RACER.com. “I just go to work every day and try to do the best I can for [Roger Penske] and the company and the opportunity they gave me when I came on board some 15 years ago or so now,” said the 47-year-old crew chief icon. “I’m just trying to make the most of it.”

He explained further, “You just have to go to work every day and prove yourself like it’s your first day on the job. That’s kind of how I’ve approached it.” And clearly, that approach has worked for Wolfe. Sure, that win in Vegas might have been the deciding factor for team #22. But we cannot forget the incredible strategy that put Joey Logano in Victory Lane in Atlanta. Or the grueling fuel-mileage battle his entire team outlasted in Nashville, stretching 5 overtimes.

Every bit of that was Joey Logano, featuring Paul Wolfe and his incredible team in the #22 pit stall. Their partnership is one of the record books. On one side, we have the only active 3x NASCAR Cup Series champion in stock car racing. Accompanying him is the winningest active crew chief (42 wins) in the entire sport. Can they perhaps replicate a Jimmie Johnson-Chad Knaus-esque run en route to 7 Cup Series titles in the future? Now, that might be a bit too much of an ask. Regardless, if history’s been a lesson, you can never truly count out Joey Logano or Paul Wolfe.