Kicking off the season as the reigning 2022 champ, Joey Logano‘s current standing in the NASCAR Cup Series is enough to make anyone hit the panic button, being just four races deep. As Logano gears up for this Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, he finds himself stuck in 30th place after a bumpy start to 2024. However, while the Team Penske driver might be leading the series with two pole positions and kicking off three races in the front row, he’s also snagged three finishes in the back of the pack, 28th or worse. This shaky start takes us back to Tony Stewart‘s 2015 season, where he ended up 28th overall.

Joey Logano is off to a rocky start this year, and it’s turning out to be a Déjà vu

Back in 2015, while his teammate Kevin Harvick was tearing up the track early on, Kurt Busch made a splash in his Cup Series return, and Tony Stewart was way back in 36th place in the points. That year, Stewart hit a new low, marking his worst start ever in his NASCAR career. We’re talking back-to-back finishes at the bottom: P42 at Daytona, P30 in Atlanta, P33 in Vegas, and then P39 at Phoenix, all off the lead lap. After 12 years, Tony Stewart had a bad season. Before this, it was in 2003, but even then, he managed to pull off a couple of wins and snagged seventh place by the end of the season.

Fast forward to 2024, and Logano is feeling the same heat as Tony Stewart did in 2015. His only break from the curse was a P9 finish in Vegas. But then came Phoenix, where a nudge from John Hunter Nemechek ended his race early, smashing into the wall with plenty of laps still to go.

“It’s definitely the toughest start of a season I’ve ever had. Some of it, out of our control; some of it, in our control, but we just haven’t scored the points,” Joey Logano stated following the Goodyear tire testing at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Right now, Logano’s lagging a whole 100 points behind his Team Penske buddy and 2023 Cup champ, Ryan Blaney. But with 22 races left before the playoffs kick in, Joey Logano should not be sweating it too much, despite admitting this is the roughest start he’s ever faced. Some of the setbacks were definitely out of his hands, like the Phoenix one. Others? Well, they could’ve been handled better. 

Despite being stuck in 30th place in the standings, like the former Cup champion, Tony Stewart, who was 36th in points after four races in 2015, Logano’s not down and out. However, he’s known for making comebacks, just like when he snagged his first Cup Series title in 2018 after missing the playoffs the year before. So, Joey Logano isn’t hitting the panic button just yet.

Why doesn’t #22 really need to worry about a sloppy start?

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Joey Logano might be hanging in a less-than-satisfactory place in the standings, but it ain’t as bleak as it looks. The 2022 champ is only 35 points shy of making the playoff cut, and with a hefty 22 races left before the curtain falls on the regular season, there’s plenty of time to flip the screenplay. Aside from a bumpy ride in Phoenix, his car’s been showing some decent hustle. For Joey, this sluggish kickoff to the year ain’t a huge sweat. He’s not trailing because his ride’s slow, after all.

Logano’s got this calm, been-there-done-that vibe going: “I mean, it helps you in these moments mentally when you know you can do it, right? 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.”

35-Race Winless Joey Logano Shows Mental Resilience Despite “Freakin’ Miserable” Phase in the NASCAR Cup Series

If Joey Logano can steer clear of trouble in the upcoming races, there’s a solid shot he’ll climb right back up in the standings. It’s way too early to stress about the playoffs. Joey’s got a shot at a do-over starting with Bristol, and he’s eyeing it as his chance to turn things around. To add to his current standings in the Cup Series, if Tony Stewart can have an exceptional racing career, so can the Team Penske driver. Remember when Christopher Bell was in an even tighter spot last year and still made it to the final showdown?