Joey Logano Goes Against NASCAR Garage to Support Current Championship Format With Bizarre ‘Olympic’ Call

“I mean, don’t get mad at me for it.” Joey Logano recently defended his Cup Series championship luck against a sea of opponents. From veteran drivers to diehard fans, a vast swathe of the NASCAR community demands a change to the playoff system. Logano won the 2024 title with only one regular-season win, while Kyle Larson could not cross the Round of 8. Now, however, Logano has another argument to defend this format.

When former NASCAR CEO Brian France first introduced the format, he sought ‘Game 7’ moments. The nerve-racking pressure that makes drivers sweat and keeps fans thrilled is the fuel for this format. According to Joey Logano, it has a well-founded logic considering its application in the Olympics.

Joey Logano slips into a fan’s shoes

Since the very start of his career, Joey Logano has dealt with pressure. His father, Tom, forged his birth certificate so that Logano could start driving Legend cars at age 9. So he faced the pressure of the risk of getting caught. At 14, he was competing with drivers four years older than him, and at 15, Mark Martin labeled Logano as the next racing superstar. As an 18-year-old, he took over three-time Cup Series champion Tony Stewart’s ride at Joe Gibbs Racing. Hence, pressure is like a second name for Logano – and this playoff format fits in perfectly with his habits. Although NASCAR may tweak the four-round elimination format for the Cup championship after widespread backlash, Logano is still fighting in favor.

Now, Team Penske’s three-time Cup champion made an unlikely parallel with the Olympics. Joey Logano compared the pressure levels in NASCAR with those of the global athletic platform in a NASCAR Live episode. He said, “The Olympics is the highest pressure moment for an athlete ever to have no matter what the sport is. Because you have one opportunity to be the best in the world. And if you don’t make it happen, you gotta wait for four years, and you may not be able to do it again. Holy cow, that’s a whole new level of pressure, right? And I love watching the Olympics because of that…I don’t care if it’s ping pong, I wanna watch that. I wanna see the best in the world with their backs up against the wall.” 

Joey Logano has made it to the “Championship 4” race six times in 11 editions of the current playoff format. He also won the title in half of them and has 15 victories during the playoffs. This high standing is due to Logano’s ‘clutch performances,’ which he found similar to the Olympics’ high-pressure moments. He continued defending the format: “Our playoff system, the current one, presents that opportunity many times throughout the ten weeks, especially in the final race. I think it’s fine coming down to one race. There’s a lot of decisions to be made to make it a good one, and if you make one of them wrong, it’s not gonna work out for you…I’m talking about what happens in the race shop. Make one bolt loose, make one bad decision…the smallest things will take you out of it. Good, so be it.”

While Joey Logano keeps rolling out positivity for the playoffs, his 2025 situation does not look good. He is indeed facing a high-pressure moment right now.

The grim signs are popping up

Joey Logano may be a strong defender of the playoff system. Yet after the playoff opener at Darlington Raceway, the Team Penske driver is in a sticky spot. It was a night to forget for Logano, who started from the 14th position and could not make up much track position. He did not score any stage points and finished in 20th place at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval. What is more, he moved from one point above the round of 12 cut line to three points below it. This unfortunate situation jeopardizes his status in the Round of 16, where every race is crucial for an advance into the next round. Even Dale Jr. downplayed Logano’s title run this time.

It was also a surprising finish for Joey Logano. Across seven races in Darlington, he won there in Spring 2022. The No. 22 Ford driver was confused after the race: “We just had no grip. There isn’t much to say outside of that. It wasn’t good enough. This has been a good track for us in the past, but I don’t know.” Logano continued, “It’s a bit of a head scratcher to try to understand…it’s obviously not the day we wanted. We just did a good job of not making a bad day worse…It was surprising. I thought we would be able to run in the top-10, just because of history and because we’ve been there in the past, but when everyone got better, we didn’t.”

Now, it is time for Joey Logano to rise to the high-pressure situation. Let’s see if he can get it done this year as well and defend his 2024 championship.