“The playoffs create drama. It creates storylines. It creates awesome moments like that. I don’t understand what people don’t like about it,” Logano said in defence of the playoff format. And why wouldn’t he? All three of his Cup Series championships have come under this format. But when NASCAR decided to go back to the Chase, all of a sudden, the playground that Logano used to exploit and get his way was no more.

And if you’re to go by the early start of the 2026 season, it feels as if the Penske driver won’t even make the Chase, let alone compete for another championship.

Will Logano survive the Chase?

The three-time Cup Series champion has barely made a mark yet. Logano’s best performance came at Daytona, where he started from third and finished in third. Apart from this, his next five race finishes were all outside the top 10: 18th at Atlanta, 15th at COTA, 31st at Phoenix, 15th at Vegas, and 33rd in the latest Darlington race.

With just a top five and a top 10, Logano has 139 points in his tally and is standing in 16th place. Either the Team Penske driver needs to step up, or he will fail to make it to the Chase, given that only 16 drivers will qualify for the next round after the first 26 races.

Given how Joey Logano’s performance has been worrying, his average finish tells a more shocking story. The #22 driver’s average finish position so far has been 19.167, and this is by far the worst statistic for him ever since the playoffs started back in 2014.

In 2024, his average finish was 17.11, yet he went on to win the championship. Logano’s best finish came in 2015, with an average of 9.17. In the rest of the years, he was around 10-15 for average finish position.

Drivers like Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, and Kyle Larson had better average finishes, greater consistency, or stronger overall performances throughout the year, but it was Logano who ended up winning the title. One particular reason could be how Team Penske figured out on winning a race in the semi-final round and hit their mark in Phoenix, that oval was basically a Penske fortress.

No wonder they won three championships (two for Logano and one for Blaney), and in general, won seven recent races altogether. As a result, in a format where ‘win, and you’re in’ keeps on happening, consistency is barely important until the playoffs.

However, in 2026, things look to be drastically different, and if the #22 driver does not win a race, he is expected to have a hard time getting into the cutline. Sharing their thoughts on the same, fans reacted to Joey Logano’s 2026 performances.

Fans call Logano a “mid-pack” driver

Reacting to Joey Logano’s performance, a fan wrote, “Nothing is wrong particularly, he’s just the same mid-pack driver he’s been in the next gen era but doesn’t have the playoffs to save him.” Through this, the fan wanted to shed light on how Logano always had the upper hand in the latter part of the season, where you win a race, and you’re qualified for the next round. It happened in 2024, when he was very average in the regular season but ended up winning the title.

Another fan wrote along the same lines, “This has been the usual performance the past few years, they just get hot during playoffs and figured out Phoenix.” This fan also mentioned the advantage Joey Logano had in the playoffs and knew how to win in Phoenix, which made his task easier.

“They just did not hit the setup today. Also it’s not too surprising considering he’s been running mid pack for a few years now. There’s a reason why he loved the “win and you’re in” format so much,” wrote another fan, by bringing out the perks of the playoffs era, which Logano enjoyed, but in 2026, he looks to be exposed.

Most fans wrote on the same line as they highlighted the same playoff advantage that Logano said, just like this fan, “The guy hasn’t been able to put together more then 3 top 10s in a row in like 4 years. As soon as the chase was announced and new he was f*cked.”

With that said, Logano will really have to pull something extraordinary out of his bag to turn the sport’s format narrative around him.