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HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Joey Logano‘s path to the championship phase of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs this year has highlighted what might be an underrated component of his game.
“Clutch — it’s a great word,” Logano said with a trademark grin. “I like it.”
Logano’s performance in pivotal situations has given the Team Penske driver another shot at his first title in Sunday’s season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM) at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The 26-year-old ace punctuated the last two series of eliminations with a victory in each round’s finale, ensuring his place at the championship table.
Those postseason achievements are an extension of Logano’s overall efforts since the current Chase system was introduced in 2014. In the 29 playoff races since that format took root, Logano has won seven of them — more than any Sprint Cup driver.
“I think that’s something that I’m very proud of, to come into high-pressure moments like that and be better under pressure — and not just me, my whole race team,” Logano said Thursday during Championship 4 Media Day activities in Miami Beach. “We’ve been able to win two races (this year) under those situations and that’s something I’m very proud of and very excited for this weekend because it’s the same situation, right?”
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Logano’s results this season suggest that both he and his Team Penske No. 22 Ford group are peaking at the right time. His teammate, Brad Keselowski, won four races in the season’s first half, but Logano prevailed just once in the regular season — at Michigan in June.
Logano also qualified for the Championship 4 field in 2014. After some early season setbacks, he wasn’t certain this was the year he’d book a return trip.
“There was a point in the season that I wasn’t sure that we were going to get this far, you know, and we’ve definitely found a lot of speed in our race cars in both the 2 (Keselowski) and the 22 at Team Penske, and then to the point, it’s like, man, we’ve got something to win this championship,” Logano said.
“It’s a long season. The sport is cyclical. It goes up and down. You’re good for a little bit, and the next thing you know you’re looking for more and people catch up. It’s just part of it.”
With this year’s 35 other events in the rearview, Logano just has to be good for one more race against a stacked championship field, each with their own heavyweight credentials. Kyle Busch will be vying for a repeat Sprint Cup crown. Carl Edwards, like Logano, will be looking for his first title, trying to overcome the heartache of 2011 when he lost the championship in a tiebreaker to Tony Stewart. And Jimmie Johnson will be seeking to cement his place among the sport’s immortals with a seventh championship to put his name in the discussion with Earnhardt and Petty.
But Logano knows there are plenty of other drivers in the larger 40-car field eager to end the season on a positive note. His assignment for a successful weekend: To finish in front of all of them with the stakes at their highest.
“I’ve got to beat everyone, and that’s a pressure that I love,” Logano said. “I said before the race last week on the radio, I said, these are the moments we live for. This is what we prepare for every single day. This is what we think about. This is an awesome opportunity, and to embrace that pressure, because there’s only four drivers that get that. You know, it’s a privilege to have pressure.”
