A changing championship format, an outperforming teammate, and the failure to execute a strong pace in races. That’s quite a lot on Joey Logano’s plate, perhaps more than he can handle. However, amidst this massive mental toll that he was battling, his performance at the Martinsville Speedway was a huge relief. It gave him strong grounds to keep going this season, and as per Kevin Harvick, it also helped him to rebound from his previous runs.

Joey Logano’s Martinsville run is a massive rebound

“That’s the way it works, right? Like, no matter how many championships you’ve won or how many races you’ve won, when you have a race where you get lapped three times, you’re like, am I doing something wrong?” Kevin Harvick said as he focused on Joey Logano’s runs this season. The latter has often found himself in the middle or at the end of the pack, but rarely at the front.

NASCAR can sometimes put the drivers under massive pressure. It gets difficult, especially for a three-time Cup champion like Logano, who has only struggled this year. While the season began well for him with a strong top-5 finish at the Daytona 500, he dropped massively.

“I mean, you ask yourself those questions, your crew chief is asking those questions,” Harvick added. “[Martinsville] has obviously been a great racetrack for him…that’s how you rebound from getting lapped three times.”

In a way, this performance is not abnormal for Logano. For years now, he has been repeating this pattern: he struggles to finish at the top at the beginning of the season, but manages to get into winning ways as the races progress. Nothing seems to be wrong with it, considering the fact that he managed to win the title in 2024, too.

But it could cause him trouble this season. NASCAR is now following the Chase format, which rewards consistent performances over a few race wins. So, he will not have the option to win and get into the playoffs, simply because it doesn’t exist anymore.

Meanwhile, his teammate, Ryan Blaney, has managed to outperform him several times, including a race win at Phoenix. This could be another stressor for Logano, as mentioned. However, he takes it as a positive for the team.

Logano reflects on his teammate outperforming him

“You want that. It’s important to have strong teammates,” Logano told the media after the Martinsville race. Team Penske has been growing quite a bit in the past few years, but Logano is the most experienced driver they currently have. Moreover, he has the longest tenure with the team, yet finds himself battling his teammates.

Understandably, this could get rather frustrating for other drivers, but for Logano, he feels that it is important to learn from your faster teammates: “You learn from each other, you get better that way. So, you need to have a couple of teammates that can keep things in check. It’s important.”

As of now, Ryan Blaney has had a relatively better season than Joey Logano, including that one race win. He has placed himself in second place in the standings, with Logano in 12. The latter was about to drop off from the top 16, but managed to climb four places from his result at Martinsville.

Hence, the third-place finish was more than it looked like for Logano. Although there is still quite some time before the Chase begins, consistent performance is key, and the #22 team cannot stay dependent on a single race win anymore.