It is safe to say that for Team Penske, 2024 has been the best and the worst so far, at least points-wise. While reigning Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney sits gloriously at the top of the list, two-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano is far behind in the 30th spot. A DNF at Daytona, a 28th place finish at Atlanta, a slightly better top-10 finish at Las Vegas, and again, another DNF at Phoenix is all he has managed to come up with till now. Moreover, in all of those races except for the one at Las Vegas, he has been a part of on-track crashes. Despite that, Logano is anything but alarmed.
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“It’s definitely the toughest start of a season I’ve ever had,” Logano admitted recently to NASCAR. “Some of it, out of our control; some of it, in our control, but we just haven’t scored the points. The superspeedways, Atlanta, our cars were really fast. Vegas, we were mediocre.”
“Last week was a struggle. With that said, the way the races are these days, you can pick that car up, put it fifth, and it’ll probably run fifth. Just we didn’t qualify good enough and stay up there and get up there. And then we got caught up in that crash there with John Hunter. So, just one of those things,” he added, recalling his lap 204 crash at Phoenix.
Amidst his miseries, Logano just hopes to stay focused on what he does, keep grinding and bringing fast race cars. He stated that he has won two championships with the same team and therefore they know what to do to salvage the situation.
Joey Logano is not one to panic during adversity
Joey Logano is not a newbie in the arena of NASCAR. He knows that in a fast-paced, competitive sport like NASCAR, you win some and you lose some. And so, he has carefully nurtured the mentality to deal with wins and losses with equal fervor.
“I mean, it helps you in these moments mentally when you know you can do it, right?” Logano explained. “If you’re earlier in your career and you haven’t gone through many things like this before, you wonder if you’re ever going to win again. But when you’ve done it for — what am I, 15, 16 years in now — I’ve been through the cycle a few times.”
He is confident that his team can get out of what everyone considers a slump. Although not easy and not fun, he is determined to keep fighting and get the job done.
For Logano, the mantra is to stick to his habits and keep going.
