LAS VEGAS — As he has in previous seasons, Joey Logano searched for a word or phrase that would serve as his team’s slogan for this year’s playoffs.
While on a road trip with his wife Brittany, they discussed options. We hit them. Logano’s championship quest with his No. 22 Team Penske unit would be shaped by the term “work.”
It’s not exactly a slogan that seems to exude a lot of energy or motivational influence.
But look deeper, says Logano.
The word has everything a team needs to win a championship, he noted. You can’t say work without earning.
While some might say it’s ridiculous, let’s be honest, many team mottos can be, but if they relate to what the group is going through, a word like work can have a profound impact.
“The context was, ‘Hey, we haven’t had the best of seasons so far, but we’re working to get better,'” Logano told NBC Sports.
“We work to win.”
That’s what Logano — who finished the regular season 15th in the standings — done Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He became the first driver to earn a spot in next month’s championship race at Phoenix Raceway.
“What a turn of events last week! » Logano told his team on the radio after taking the checkered flag.
The victory came a week after Logano was eliminated from the playoffs until Alex Bowman’s car was deemed underweight and disqualified. This gave Logano a second chance at the Drivers’ Championship.
Second chances are meaningful for Logano.
“Our foundation is all about second chances,” he said of the Joey Logano Foundation. “I believe that people given a second chance will act completely differently when you get a second chance at your life, your job or whatever. Maybe things have come full circle at this point.
Logano’s talent was evident early in his racing career and he became known as “Sliced Bread.” Former Xfinity champion Randy LaJoie, father of current Cup driver Corey LaJoie, gave Logano this nickname. This was a reference to Logano being the best thing since sliced bread. Randy LaJoie wasn’t the only one who admired Logano. Mark Martin also praised Logano’s talents before Logano competed in NASCAR.
Logano’s 18th birthday, making him old enough to race in NASCAR, was celebrated in a press conference that included cake at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May 2008. Three weeks later, he won at Kentucky to become the youngest winner of the series — a record that stands.
A few months later, at a press conference featuring 10 different broadcast networks and a network broadcasting the event live, Logano was announced as Tony Stewart’s replacement in 2009, with Stewart joining what became Stewart-Haas Racing .
Logano won as a rookie in a rain-shortened race at New Hampshire in 2009, but won just once in his four full seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing before being replaced by former champion Matt Kenseth.
Winners, losers after Joey Logano’s Las Vegas Cup playoff race
Joey Logano earned a spot in Championship 4 with his victory, but others left Las Vegas feeling good.
For a while, Logano wondered if his Cup career would end at age 22. At the request of Brad Keselowski, car owner Roger Penske signed Logano and Logano has been with Team Penske since 2013. It is this second chance that endures throughout his life. .
As he nears the end of his 17th season in NASCAR, Logano, 34, reflects on his early days in the series and the advice he would give his younger self.
“You have to roll with the punches,” he told NBC Sports after his victory in Las Vegas. “It’s so simple, but you have to keep going. Some things seem so simple to say, but it’s hard to do.
“Don’t get me wrong. I ride the waves. When it’s down, I’m down. There’s no doubt about it, but the attitude of recovery is the most important thing to have, and I guess that’s what I would probably tell that kid: just get back up and try again.
“Just keep going because you never got out of it.” You can see it two years ago when I got fired from Gibbs and got the opportunity (at Penske). You can look at this for this year and say keep going. If you look at the first 10 to 15 races of the season, it’s “oof, not good”, but you keep going and you keep getting back up.
Now, Logano, crew chief Paul Wolfe and the rest of the team have two weeks to prepare for the championship race. Logano is seeking a third Cup title, which would make him just the 10th driver in NASCAR history with three or more Cup championships, tying him with Stewart, Lee Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip. It would also leave Logano one gap behind Jeff Gordon, the driver Logano idolized in his youth.
Logano’s win Sunday was the 35th of his career in Cup and 14th in the playoffs, meaning 40 percent of his series victories have come in the playoffs — the best percentage among drivers remaining in the round of 16.
If he hadn’t saved enough fuel in five overtimes to win in Nashville in June, Logano wouldn’t have made the playoffs. He responded by winning two of the first seven playoff races.
This is the sixth time he has reached the championship race – every even year since 2014. But it also means he left this last race watching someone else celebrate a championship three times.
“I know the feeling of not winning,” Logano said. “It probably hurts even more to make Championship 4 and not win than to not even make Championship 4 because you are so close and you know what it is.”
“I know it just pushes me to not feel that feeling. I love the feeling of winning, but I hate the feeling of losing even more.
But there is little time left for further reflection.
He works on what awaits him.
