Editor’s note: This is the 24th in a series in which we review the top 30 drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series in reverse order of the 2025 final standings.
Driver: Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford
Crew chief: Paul Wolfe
Final 2025 ranking: 7th
Key stats: 1 win, 7 top fives, 13 top 10s, 2 poles, 577 laps led
How 2025 ended: After winning two of the three previous NASCAR Cup Series championships (2022 and 2024), Logano had an uncharacteristic off-year in 2025, finishing seventh. However, he came on strong during the 10-race playoffs, with four top fives and two other top-10 finishes, advancing to the third-round semifinals before he was eliminated in the Championship 4 season finale. Even though he finished a respectable seventh, statistically it was his overall worst-performing season with the fewest wins (tie), top fives (tie) and top 10s (tie) since 2012.
Best race: Logano had two best races in 2025. There was his lone win of the season with the playoff qualifying victory in the spring race at Texas Motor Speedway, where he led just seven laps to take the checkered flag. But from a dominating standpoint, his fourth-place finish in the Loudon playoff race was his best overall performance, starting from the pole and leading a season-high 147 laps before trailing off in the closing laps.
RELATED: 2026 Cup Series schedule | Joey Logano driver page
Other season highlights: Logano finished the year with a fourth-place finish in the season-ending race at Phoenix Raceway, but it unfortunately was too little, too late, as he had been eliminated from potentially earning the fourth Cup championship of his career a week earlier at Martinsville Speedway. … Logano ended with a top-10 finish for the ninth time in the past 11 seasons.
Stat to know: Track position was arguably Logano’s biggest problem in 2025. He failed to lead even one lap in 19 of the season’s 36 points-paying races, including a 15-race stretch from the spring race at Charlotte to the playoff opener at Darlington, where he failed to lead a lap in 11 of those events.
Quotable: Two quotes pretty much summed up how 2025 turned out. After he was eliminated from advancing to the Championship 4 at Martinsville, Logano said, “We didn’t deserve it.” And when asked about weaknesses and deficiencies of the overall season, particularly inconsistency and failure to execute when he needed to, Logano admitted, “We just weren’t good enough.”
Looking ahead: When it comes to bouncing back from disappointing seasons, history has been on Logano’s side, particularly with winning championships the following season. After finishing 17th and not making the playoffs in 2017, he roared back to win his first Cup crown the following year. Then, after finishing eighth in 2021, he won his second championship in 2022. And when he dipped down to a 12th-place finish in 2023 (when teammate Ryan Blaney earned his first Cup championship), Logano scored his third Cup title in 2024. So if history once again repeats itself, he should be in contention to win his fourth Cup title in 2026.