“What you’re actually doing is handcuffing all the drivers and all the teams into an execution battle.” Joey Logano uttered these words of criticism a month after clinching the 2024 Cup Series title. The Team Penske driver is usually known for defending the NASCAR playoff format. He advocated the drama each elimination round creates. This opinion has landed him in the bad books of veterans like Dale Jr. However, Joey Logano can agree with others about one thing.

The Next-Gen car, introduced in 2022, has been the subject of controversy. From unexpected crashes to aerodynamic challenges, the car’s faults have left drivers scratching their heads in confusion. And Joey Logano stands with the majority of the Cup Series garage in this regard. And he recently expressed his opinion amidst the building playoff tensions.

The NASCAR playoffs are ‘harder’ now

Shane van Gisbergen, who got eliminated after the Round of 16, won last weekend. He left 12 playoff drivers desperately trying to secure a Round of 8 berth. The tension was particularly high at the lower end, which comprised Chase Briscoe, Joey Logano, and Ross Chastain. Yet Briscoe, from Joe Gibbs Racing, and Logano, from Team Penske, managed to outsmart Chastain, from Trackhouse Racing. This shows that the ‘Big Three’ – Gibbs, Penske, and Hendrick – are reigning the playoffs. Hendrick and Gibbs are dominating the front row of the Round of 8 anyway. Nevertheless, Logano doubts this dominance.

In a recent interview with Rubbin’ Is Racing, Joey Logano reminisced about earlier times. Before the Next-Gen car’s spec parts flooded into the garage, teams could work on individual cars and raise their speeds. Now, none of that is possible, making the NASCAR playoffs formidable. Logano said, “There’s more parity than ever, is what I’m saying. Like when they went to the next-gen car, I mean, that’s brought everybody a lot closer together. All you gotta do is stats to see the parity. There used to be drivers that would win nine races a year and have 20-something top-five finishes.”

There is a peculiar aspect of the Next-Gen – fuel mileage. Since cars cannot pass each other easily, they optimize for fuel and run half-throttle through long races. Joey Logano himself has taken advantage of it during his wins at Nashville and Las Vegas in 2024. Yet he denounces that method: “The next-gen era, especially as we’ve all been racing the same car now for a few years, the fuel just keeps getting tighter and tighter…It’s harder to get a top-five finish. It’s harder to win a race because you can’t. We used to have enough speed in our car that we can go out there and make a mistake and still drive through the field and get back into the top five, no problem. Now you make a mistake and you put us back in 20th, you’re probably going to finish 20th, maybe 15th, right?”

Joey Logano declared his opinion, saying that “the best racing is when cars have different speeds. And the tire fall-off lately has been helping that piece a lot.” With NASCAR ramping up the horsepower from 670 to 750, maybe Logano and his peers would feel a bit at peace.

While criticizing NASCAR’s speed-disabling innovation, Joey Logano also felt grateful. For that, he went back to his childhood.

Gratitude to the primary mentors

Long before Joey Logano fell into controversy with the NASCAR playoffs, he was a much-loved upcoming racer. Known as ‘Sliced Bread,’ Logano’s skills as a young speedster received accolades from veterans like Mark Martin. A part of the Team Penske star’s early career involved racing in the ARCA Series for Venturini Motorsports. Bill and Cathy kicked off their enterprise in their native Chicago in 1982, and the Venturinis gave countless young drivers a break, primarily in ARCA. The couple served as great teachers and cheerleaders, imparting their wisdom and knowledge to young speedsters to make them better on and off the racetrack.

Now, Bill and Cathy Venturini are preparing to retire. This elicited heartfelt messages from their former mentees, including Joey Logano. “Hey, Bill and Cathy, congratulations, what an incredible career, what an incredible business you built, and what an incredible legacy you built in the motorsports industry,” he said. “I hope you guys enjoy your retirement and have fun for a change, just have fun.” Logano dug up a bit of his past: “The funniest thing I remember most was the kiss from Big Bill in victory lane. I’m not a real kissy kind of guy, so I was like ‘Ahhhh!!’ …It was always fun going to the shop because they were always trying to look for the next thing, working on their cars, working on what was next.”

While saluting his former mentors, Joey Logano is gearing up for the tough NASCAR playoffs. And he will need all the luck he can get due to the Next-Gen parity.