Joey Logano is not viewed as a favorite to win the 2024 Cup Series championship despite reaching victory lane twice. There is good reason for that. The Team Penske superstar is in the Round of 8 only because Alex Bowman was disqualified for having an underweight car in Charlotte last Sunday. Could he cause a potential upset at this stage and prove the majority wrong?
Advertisement
A two-time Cup Series champion cannot be simply counted out of the fold. Logano is confident that he can win the title even though it has been a while since he has found the pace to consistently lead races. He reasoned in a recent interview that the Next Gen car has changed the dynamics of competition and is what causes different faces to be seen running in the top 10.
He said, “Last night, I was putting my son to bed and he likes reading those yearbooks on how the season went. We were reading one from ‘20 or ‘21, I’m not sure, and he started reading the finishing order and the top 10 was almost the same every weekend. It doesn’t happen anymore. The game has changed. This car has completely changed everything that we used to know about NASCAR.”
All Logano needs is one win to make it to the Championship 4. His most recent victory came in Atlanta during the first round of the playoffs. In the last two years, Team Penske cars have been good in this part of the season. Logano will be hoping to keep that ball rolling and give his team a third consecutive title.
Logano’s mindset after the unexpected Round of 8 qualification
The goals and the mindset of the No.22 team wouldn’t have changed regardless of their Round of 8 qualification. Logano would have gone for the win in each of the season’s last four races in an attempt to win the owner’s championship. Now that a Championship 4 spot and a potential title are up for grabs, it gives him more incentive to perform.
He added, “Like I said, we’re right back in it and the goal was the same, whether we were in the driver’s championship still or not. The owner’s side of it still mattered to us, so the mindset doesn’t change. The energy doesn’t change. We’re still going out there to maximize the day and win it if we can.”
Logano is considered by many to be one of the greatest drivers of the current generation. Winning the Cup Series for a third time would make him the first to do it since Jimmie Johnson. Such a record will solidify his place as a future Hall of Famer.
