“I talked to my wife in Victory Lane and she’s like, ‘Do you believe one week ago at this hour…’ that I came walking out of our bedroom and said, ‘You’re not going to believe this shit…’
That was how Joey Logano delivered the message that Alex Bowman had been disqualified for a minimum weight violation at the Charlotte Roval, eliminating him from the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, and moving him back in only hours after his provisional elimination.
“Here we are a week later and I told her, ‘You ain’t going to believe this,’ that we won this one.”
In review, Logano was provisionally in the Round of 8 in the closing laps at the Roval but fell out due to a late charge by Tyler Reddick in the closing laps. For four hours, Logano had to come to terms that his No. 22 team wasn’t good enough and then came the call that a disqualification knocked him right back in.
A week later, he wins the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and now the only remaining race that matters is the last one.
But even then, it’s not that he won, but how he won. Logano didn’t have the outright speed to defeat Christopher Bell, who led 151 laps on Sunday, but crew chief Paul Wolfe kept them out with a razor thin margin on fuel and tire life.
Bell got there on the final lap but couldn’t complete the pass.
Just like that, Logano went from out of the Round of 8, starting at the bottom of the Round of 8, to becoming the first and only driver currently set to race for a championship next month at Phoenix Raceway.
From the outhouse to the penthouse as they say.
Logano, who is 15th in average finish, ninth in laps led, 11th in top-5s and 15th in top-10s will get the longest time to prepare for Phoenix, one of Team Penske’s best tracks, and is absolutely a team that everyone else who makes the final four is worried about.
When it matters most, Logano and his team steps up.
“I don’t know exactly what it is,” Logano said. “I do know that this team rises to the occasion. That’s why I said I’m so proud to be a part of ’em. It’s not just me driving the car. All these guys realize what’s on the line.
“Like I said, they’ve been doing it for so long. We’re experienced. We can stay calm in real heated situations. When the money’s there, we’re able to show up, for whatever reason that is. I think a lot of it’s some natural things built inside of you, God-given things that make you love the moments of the pressure on, right? You got to learn to love that stuff. I think that’s just what it is.
“There’s no other group that I’d rather go to battle with, I can promise you that. Not one other team on this field that I would rather have than what the 22 team is right now.”
It also helps that this an even numbered year.
This sounds silly, of course, but in the 11 years of this championship format, Logano has made the final four literally every even numbered year since 2014.
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
In ’18 and ’22, he won the first race of the semi-final to advance straight to the championship race and won it, now he’s matched that feat in 2024 too.
“I guess it’s real,” Logano said.
And sure, this has been the worst overall campaign from a consistency point in over a decade for Logano, but the rules over the past decade hasn’t been based on average finish, top-10s or top-5s but winning and winning late.
Logano is tied for the second most number of wins, at three, alongside Bell, Denny Hamlin and William Byron and they’ve been strategically times from one in the regular season to advance to the playoffs, one in the first round opener to advance to the second round and now one in the third round to advance to the Championship 4.
He’s done so for the record breaking sixth time in 11 years, doing what it takes to make this stage more than anyone else in the sport. Thus, preseason goal number one; accomplished.
“Our goal when we show up in Daytona every year for Media Day, what’s the goal, win the championship,” Logano said. “There’s nothing else that matters. I don’t care how you get there, what you do, it’s all about winning the championship. A big step of that is getting into the Championship 4.
“There’s a lot of pride in making it to the Championship 4. It’s tough, right? A long year, you got to get through a lot of different scenarios, a lot of curve balls that are thrown your way. It’s hard, right? Making it is something to be proud of, there’s no doubt.
“I also have lived through the moments of getting to the Championship 4 and not winning and feeling that pain. Being that close and not winning, that sucks, right? I can’t put a better way of saying that. That hurts a lot.
“It’s all about maximizing the opportunity that’s ahead of us. As proud as I am that we’ve made it, I also feel like the job’s far from being over because I know what that feeling is if you don’t make it happen.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.