Logano and No. 22 Penske Crew Seek Another Championship

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Capitalizing in every opportunity has been the tale of two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano and the No. 22 Team Penske crew.

Whether it’s coming out on top at Nashville after five overtimes, advancing into the Round of 8 after Playoff contender Alex Bowman was disqualified to then excelling on pit strategy at Las Vegas that got him in his record breaking sixth Championship 4 appearance. Logano has kept his mindset clear this whole time — team first rather than himself.

The 16-year veteran does have a chance at a third Cup title, which would lead all active drivers as the last driver to join this club was Tony Stewart in 2011.

Logano has instead concentrated on the people who got him to Phoenix with the potential outcome.

“Obviously it would be great. I guess when it comes to individually, I don’t think about it that much,” said Logano. “I think of it more of a team ’cause I know what a championship is worth to everybody. I think that matters more.

“The individual piece of saying you got three of ’em, like that’s great, don’t get me wrong. I think ’cause I’m still doing it, I guess I don’t look at that that much. But I’d like to see the people that I care about at our race team celebrate.”

No driver has won the Cup title with an average finish of 15th or worse. After 35 races, Logano has an average finish of 17.6, the lowest among the title contenders and his worst since joining Penske in 2013. But it’s just a number at this point, considering how they’ve been able to improve after the No. 22 team and Ford in general struggling from time-to-time.

Despite the angst where he didn’t win until the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro before taking the checkered flag at a points race at Nashville, Logano never doubt his team’s capability to overcome adversity.

“We’ve done this before. It kind of seems like our way of doing it,” said Logano. “We want to win more earlier than that. It seems like for whatever the reasons are, just many reasons on why it happens, but we’re able to really recover seasons. It’s something I’m really proud of because there’s a lot of teams that would look at it and say,

“We’re going to call it a rebuilding year. Sports teams call it a rebuilding year. It’s an excuse for sucking. We don’t do that. We’re going to go to work and try to figure out how to be better and salvage the year.”

Heading into Sunday’s finale at Phoenix Raceway, Ford has a 50/50 chance of winning the Cup title, both by Penske drivers as Logano’s teammate Ryan Blaney has his own destiny of trying to retain his title while Logano has a shot of joining the aforementioned three-time champions club.

Even with the better odds, all remains the same at the Team Penske race shop.

“Cars are prepared right next to each other,” Logano commented. “Teams are talking to each other when I left of the shop on Tuesday to come out here. Everybody seems to be business as usual. Doesn’t really change much from that standpoint.”

Crew chief Paul Wolfe, who also has two Cup titles, including the 2022 title with Logano, explained there’s no added pressure to what’s already bestowed to him this weekend. Knowingly that his driver has his back on the No. 22 through thick and thin, and another title will further boost the morale of the crew.

“It’s always pressure, and he seems to always do amazing things in motorsports,” said Wolfe. “It’s like how do you get to the next level, right?

“We continue to try to do all we can. He gives us the resources and the things we need, and then the expectation is to go out and win races and contend for championships. I don’t know that I ever feel like he puts any extra pressure on us aside from just what really the expectations are on any weekend.

“He supports us, and fortunately, we’ve been able to have a lot of success over the years, and obviously bringing home another championship this weekend would be really pretty special.”

Making it to the Championship 4 every even year since the elimination format was introduced in 2014 does give Logano a leg up on the competition. Preparation and experience is paramount in NASCAR with Logano knowing firsthand what a title battle brings to a competitor and how you grow going forward.

“There’s so much value in experience. You come here, you feel solid, right? You feel ready,” said Logano.

“Early in my career, there’s no way you can feel ready the first time you come to the Championship 4 because you don’t know what’s coming. For myself, I’ll speak personally, I did not feel ready. After the race I learned a lot and felt more prepared the next times.

“The first one was, like, you don’t even know what’s coming your way. The stress, the pressure, all that stuff. It either makes you stronger or it makes you crack, right?

“One way or the other, something’s going to happen. Everybody’s different on how they handle that and the ways they do it.”