Joey Logano thought he had done enough to move forward in NASCAR’s playoffs with an eighth-place finish at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
But when he left the track on Sunday night, he was four points below the cutline and out of the running for his third Cup Series title.
Then came the phone calls: the inspection was taking a long time, and there might be an issue with one of the playoff cars. All Logano could do was wait and wonder if there was really a problem with Alex Bowman’s car and if it was serious enough to let Logano into the next round.
“NASCAR, man. Expect the unexpected,” Logano said on Tuesday. “You just roll with the punches and go with the flow and just continue on. I feel like these days, more and more, there are just crazy things that can happen. I just go with it.”
Sure enough, Bowman’s car was found to be underweight, and he was disqualified. This penalty dropped Bowman in the standings, and when Hendrick Motorsports decided not to appeal on Monday night, Logano was back in the running for the title.
“I was honestly surprised. I had heard rumors about a delay in tech and some things going on. But usually nothing happens,” Logano said.
“Would I be in? That’s the first question you have to ask. And then you are still cautiously optimistic, so you just keep going on with your life and prepare for the next race.”
That next race is Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where Logano has won three times and started from the pole three different times.
Logano will race over the next three weeks against his Team Penske teammate and reigning Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney, the Hendrick Motorsports trio of William Byron, Chase Elliott, and Kyle Larson, Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin, and Tyler Reddick from 23XI Racing for the four spots in the championship-deciding finale.
If he wins the title at Phoenix Raceway in November, Logano will be the only active three-time Cup Series champion in NASCAR. Kyle Busch, who did not make the playoffs, is the only active driver besides Logano with two titles.
Logano said his No. 22 Ford team will not change its strategy as they head to Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami Speedway, and Martinsville Speedway in Virginia, looking for a spot in the finals.
“Same way if we made it any other way, you go out there and attack the positives,” Logano said. “I feel that we’ve been steadily getting better and improving throughout the season to where we are now.
The speed we had at The Roval looked pretty solid to me, to where we are a championship-four caliber race team.
“The stats may not look like it. We may seem like underdogs from the outside, but internally we feel very confident in our race team that we can make a run at this thing and get us into the championship four,” Logano continued.
“And we’ve seen in the past that if you can get in there, anything can happen at Phoenix.”
The action begins Sunday at Las Vegas, where Logano won the 2022 playoff race that led him to his second Cup title. Larson won last year’s playoff race at Las Vegas, as well as the spring race there earlier this season.
But Logano likes his chances now that he’s been given this second opportunity. “We’ve done it before,” he said, “we can do it again.”
