Joey Logano Reveals How the Fords Can Catch up to Toyota and Chevrolet

Ford and Toyota both debuted new cars in the 2024 Cup Series season. While the latter and Chevrolet have found great success 7 races into the calendar, Ford is struggling to find the victory lane with its Mustang Dark Horse. Driving the car for Team Penske, two-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano sits at a lowly 19th spot on the points table. He spoke to the media in Richmond last week and provided his take on how the Ford camp can turn things around.

“It is never one thing, right? It’s always a little bit of everything,” he said. ”I’d say the engine is probably the number one thing that stands out right now that we got to keep working on, but it’s going to be a little bit of everywhere for sure. Still got the new car. We’re going to have to keep learning about and making sure we’re  getting all the potential out of the car.”

After a string of bad results, Logano managed to break into the top five for the first time this season in Richmond last Sunday. His teammate and defending champion Ryan Blaney has been Ford’s best driver so far with 3 top fives and 3 top tens. Second to him is RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher [1 top five, 5 top tens], who has problems of his own with his Dark Horse. 

He told The Tennessean that the smooth underbody of the car doesn’t help much on short tracks and that it will have to be worked on. For Logano, however, the main issue was with the engine of his ride. He detailed his struggle with it when speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio recently.

Joey Logano reiterates that his team has not maximized the Dark Horse’s potential

The former champion detailed on air that things looked good on paper with his car, but the struggles began when he took it out to the road. He noted that success lay in bridging the gap between these differences and mentioned the engine as a key area for improvement. “In some ways, there’s definitely some gains. In other ways, I don’t think we’re maximizing the potential out of the car yet,” he said.

“I think, engine-wise, we need help there, for sure. We need to try to move forward in that department as much as we can to stay competitive.” The Fords will next race in Martinsville. Toyota has swept all the short track races this season so far and will more likely than not do so at the upcoming venue too. Regardless, the American carmaker will hope to catch a break from its winless drought.