Kyle Petty broke down the fierce duel between Ross Chastain and Joey Logano at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, warning that Logano’s advancement spells trouble for the rest of the title contenders. As Petty noted, while Denny Hamlin and Logano have reached the Round of 8 fourteen and ten times, respectively, both have made it to the Championship 4 six times.
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But where Hamlin has yet to seal the deal, Logano has turned half of those runs into Cup titles, three championships to his name.
Petty emphasized that Hamlin knows exactly what lies ahead. To win it all, he’ll have to go through Logano, a man who has built his reputation on rising when it matters most. Last year, Logano squeezed into the Round of 8 by luck but quickly turned fortune into firepower, winning at Las Vegas to pin his spot in the final four before capturing the title at Phoenix.
That history is precisely why Petty believes Logano remains every contender’s biggest headache. “Denny Hamlin’s worst nightmare happened (when Logano qualified for the Round of 8)… Hamlin is gonna have to go through Joey Logano. Everybody is gonna have to. You wanna race against weaker teams. You don’t wanna race against guys like Joey Logano,” he said.
“He will bite you, and I am gonna tell you, it’s everybody’s worst nightmare, going to Phoenix right after Halloween- Joey Logano is going to be there… Paul Wolfe made a call yesterday; he deserves the award. Those guys were in the playoffs, and he took themselves out to pit and put on tires.”
“And that paid off. Because Joey had run down Ross Chastain at the end of the race again. It played out exactly like Paul Wolfe thought… And all these guys, they went home from Charlotte… Phew! Now I gotta go through Joey Logano again.”
Leaving the door open for the No. 22 team to repeat their 2024 miracle could prove costly for anyone still in the hunt. While Hamlin admitted after the race that he wished he had known the points battle between Chastain and Logano, so that he could have made a better decision toward the end of the race, the reality is that every competitor hopes someone else takes Logano out before he gets too close to the trophy.
And yet, this is nothing new for the 35-year-old, who continues to flex his muscles as one of NASCAR’s most complete drivers. Despite ranking seventh in Passing Rating and tenth in Speed Rating, Logano stands atop NASCAR Insights’ leaderboard as the sport’s best defender. Give him track position, through raw pace or a perfectly timed pit call, and he’ll slam the door shut on anyone behind him.
That is exactly what makes the No. 22 team so dangerous in the postseason. Give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile. With wins already at Las Vegas, Talladega, Martinsville, and Phoenix, Logano has proven impossible to shake loose when it counts.
Fans at Charlotte knew it, too. They voiced their frustration with a chorus of boos, but Logano couldn’t have cared less. With his ticket to the Round of 8 punched, he grinned through the noise. The sweet taste of survival drowned out every jeer echoing through the grandstands.
