If ever there was a blueprint for what a comeback should look like, Joey Logano’s 2026 season is the perfect example. While Logano has clawed his way to serious title contention, the Penske driver has a few people to thank for enabling him en route to his 40th Cup victory.
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The three-time champion and Bristol race winner was on the Stacking Pennies podcast in conversation with Corey LaJoie and Ryan Flores to break down exactly how he got to victory lane and third in the championship.
“I’ve been hoping for years that every time, cars in front of me just get out of my way,” laughed Logano. “I’ve always wanted just move, and they finally listened to me. I’ve been asking for 20 years. They finally all just moved out of my way.”
Spire’s Carson Hocevar and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs looked like the two drivers with the best shot at victory, before a bit of wheel bumping into turn three after a restart left Logano enough room to get past both Hocevar’s No. 77 Chevrolet and Gibbs’ Toyota. Logano also cleared championship leader Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, who was caught up behind the scuffling leaders.
“I saw them all fighting for the bottom in front of me, like one of them’s gonna miss the bottom here, and I can just sneak it around here,” said Logano. “So I just last-minute kind of turned it down late, but I got to the grip strip and hooked it, and they just all went up, and then we went into three. I was three-wide, bottom. I had to check out pretty early because that’s a bad angle into that corner, but they did not.”
“They shifted down in there, and it looked like I parked it, and they went three car lengths ahead of me,” added the No. 22 Penske driver. “I’m in the middle of the corner; I look to the right. It’s like they’re gonna spin out and come down the racetrack. It’s just no way they don’t wreck. I’m like, looking, I’m like, get around the center of the corner and got by it. But yeah, I just, they kind of just forgot I was there.”
The chaos between the leaders happened on lap 493, with just seven laps to go. Hocevar was attempting to cover off Gibbs’ attempt to get high up on the track, and Hocevar tapped Gibbs, who lost momentum but retaliated. Meanwhile, Larson was hanging on to Hocevar’s tail, looking to slingshot whoever came out as the loser of the battle.
The race ended with Larson in 2nd, behind Logano, Hocevar in 3rd, and Gibbs in fifth. Logano somehow ended up as the winner in a three-horse race he wasn’t even in to begin with, a race that perfectly sums up Logano’s comeback.
The Penske driver entered the Chase 65 points behind then-leader Denny Hamlin and is just 16 points shy of Larson, who leads the championship by one point going into Kansas this weekend.
Logano believed that it would take a major chunk of the Chase to get into the mix with the leaders and has been left surprised by the flying start he’s had. 9th in Darlington, 3rd at Gateway, and the Bristol victory are proof that whatever pace and performance struggles the No. 22 Ford team had early in the season have been shaken off, and the three-time champ is beginning to sniff out a fourth crown.
But the races ahead are intermediate tracks where Ford has been the third-best, with even Chevrolet finding themselves significantly off the pace to Toyota. Kansas, Vegas and Charlotte are tracks where experts believe Hamlin and Co. have the upper hand, but Logano isn’t as bothered.
Logano believes he can keep up hot streak
For a driver who was down in 20th halfway through the season, Logano has found his confidence back, and he is noticing a recurring pattern. While describing how he’s seen his 2026 season, Logano drew parallels to his three titles, saying that each year he was down in the dumps and suddenly back in the fight, full of confidence.
And that is the state of mind Team Penske needs their No. 22 driver in, because the tracks up next aren’t where Logano is strongest. Logano, 18 years into his Cup career, considers himself one of the best short-track drivers. The champion driver knows where he thrives, but he also knows how to pull one out of a hat.
“I think what fits my style better on the short tracks, you can manipulate the car more,” said Logano. “You can manage your tires better. It’s more of a thinking man’s game. A lot of mile and a half is just like Hammer City (full throttle). Like, as fast as you can go, and in my opinion, I don’t think I’m the fastest driver on a racetrack. I know I’m not, but I can outsmart most of them, and short tracks give you more opportunities to outsmart people.”
“So I think that helps a little bit, although I mean I still feel fairly confident in these tracks coming up,” Logano added. “We won our fair share of mile and a halfs in the past. Like, I say all this, not knocking down our team or myself, that we’re saying we can’t win the next three races coming up. I think we’ve made some good gains to where we can.”
Logano has eight wins at the intermediate tracks coming up. Four in Vegas, three at Kansas, and a solitary win at Charlotte. While only two of those are in the Gen 7 car, both at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The significance of those Vegas victories is that they came en route to his titles in 2022 and 2024, and if Logano were to win here again, it would prove that the patterns he sees are beginning to appear for all to see.
Heading into Kansas, Logano may not be searching for a victory; his aim will be to come away from the three intermediate track races with a decent enough points haul to stay in touch with Larson and Hamlin. Because if he is in the lead pack with four races to go, Logano may end up as the strongest title contender.