Bob Pockrass

FOX NASCAR Insider

Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano is fighting for his third championship title in 2024, or at least knows he has a chance since he has qualified for the playoffs that begin in four weeks.

He won a wild, chaotic five-overtime race at Nashville Superspeedway in June, part of a five-race stretch in which all three Penske drivers won. There are still doubts about the strength of the Penske team – it has won the last two Cup titles with Logano in 2022 and Ryan Blaney in 2023 – but at least all of its drivers are in the playoffs.

A week before NASCAR took a two-week break, Joey Logano spoke to FOX Sports about his playoff prospects (he won both titles in the 2018 and 2022 event years), running two different sets of tires at Richmond (a softer one that may wear out quickly) and how he tries to separate work and personal life.

How has the win changed the course of your season and your prospects?

I don’t know if it’s really changed the character of the season. We’re in it, which is great. The goal is not just to make the playoffs. The goal is to always win the championship. So this is a step towards that. But we’re making progress. I feel like we’re gaining speed. We’ve seen it a lot. We’ve seen it a lot with our team in particular, that we gain speed as the year goes on and the playoffs start. We just have to stick with it long enough to capitalize on the speed like the 12 (of Blaney) did last year.

You say you’ve been through this before, but could you have imagined that all three of your guys at Penske would be winning within five weeks? The thoughts on your organization from then to now with the wins are incredible.

It makes sense in some tracks – you think we’ve been pretty strong in short tracks in general. Gateway (where Austin Cindric won) was a great track for us. They saw all three of us up there and Austin took advantage. Nashville was a little bit of a surprise, I think. I think it was for everybody. Let’s be honest, five overtimes is pretty crazy. But you know what? It’s a huge accomplishment for the team to get them all under control and just be able to focus on the playoffs now. When you go into the playoffs with your tongue hanging out before you’re even there, you get tired quickly. It kind of gives you a second to recharge your batteries and focus on the future instead of just one week, knowing you’re there. We can just focus on playoff points from this point on.

People look at it and you won all your championships in even years. This is an even year. Does numerology help at all?

I don’t know. Normally, I don’t believe in such things. But this year it sounds good. We’re going to join in.

Richmond is one of your best tracks. What makes it one of your best tracks? Your average score there is under 10.

A couple of things come into play. Honestly, I learned a lot from Brad (Keselowski) when he was my teammate on how to navigate that. I was able to apply that for a couple of years. I think (crew chief) Paul (Wolfe) builds a really good car on tracks with more worn surfaces and tires that wear out quickly. That helps. I think we know that pretty well. We’ve always had top-five cars there. I haven’t won there as often as we’d like, but we’ve been in the race every time.

What is the challenge of driving with two different tires this year?

The first challenge or the first answer that everyone wants to know is: How much faster is (the softer tire) and how long does it last? Is it just faster the whole way through like we’ve seen so far with the option tire, or is it actually going to drop off more? When we ran (North) Wilkesboro, you had a track where there’s just no drop off, so it was just faster the whole time. That shouldn’t be surprising. But Richmond is a place where the tires wear out. It could be different there, and none of us will know until we get there. I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Joey Logano on the importance of training in Richmond and ignoring his phone at home

Will the whole race remain a little unknown?

In practice you have the opportunity to put on both tires, so you should have a general idea of ​​how much speed is important for developing your race strategy.

What do you want to see in the final four weeks of the regular season before the playoffs?

I would love to get some more playoff points, of course. To get into the top 10 in the points standings, we need to have some pretty spectacular weekends in a row, which can happen, but the easier way would be to just win another race, because 10th is one, ninth is two. I probably have a better chance of just winning one (for five playoff points). There’s just more to be had there. From a strategic perspective, how you call races and what you do, you have to factor all that into the equation what you need to do in the next four races.

If you don’t get a lot of playoff points in the playoffs, does that change the way you handle the playoffs? Like at Watkins Glen?

I don’t know if it changes much. You just don’t have a catchfence. We saw that last year with the 19 (of Martin Truex Jr.). The 19 had an incredible amount of playoff points and they needed them. But you also saw that cars that didn’t have playoff points could string together three solid races and get to the next round or win one and get to the next round. The playoff points are just a catchfence and if you have a couple of bad races in a row, that’s what they’re there for. That’s what they should be there for. These teams have earned them. It makes sense – if you run well all season, you should have an advantage. And that’s the advantage. The advantage is that if you screw up or make a mistake or get caught up in something, you have something to keep you going. We still have that.

On the Harvick podcast, you said your phone is on for work and off for family time. I’m interested in that. Someone like me can never turn it off, so is it easy to turn it off? Have you ever missed a call from Roger Penske?

My phone is on, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t answer it if it’s something that can be left until tomorrow because I always want to give 100 percent. But if Roger or (Penske executive) Walt (Czarencki) calls, I definitely answer it. But sometimes… when you do this over a long period of time, you have to find a balance to get it right. If you give 100 percent in your job, you have to give 100 percent at home because if things aren’t going right at home, you’re probably not at your best at work either. So I have to make sure I find that balance as best as I can. And limiting distractions on the phone is the best way to stay connected with family. Whether that’s social media or emails or phone calls or text messages, the best thing you can do a lot of times is just put the thing down and be present.

“Winning is the only reason I do it” – Joey Logano on his passion for racing and his entry into NASCAR

Did it take you a while to learn this? Or is it something you’ve always been able to do?

I probably wasn’t as good at it as I used to be. But I think there’s just a lot more going on. Anyone who watches that (video) with young children knows that you take your eyes off those kids for a second, they’re gone. They’re gone. They’re doing something else. They’ve run away. They’ve jumped in the pool or something. They’ve done something really scary. So you have to be alert the whole time.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has covered motorsports for decades, including over 30 Daytona 500s, and has worked for ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene Magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @Subscribe.

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