NASCAR driver Joey Logano has found a way to tune out months of negativity.
Critics? Naysayers? Anyone who thinks his third Cup Series championship last year was a fluke?
“I can’t hear it because my trophies, they kind of, like, echo around me,” the 34-year-old Logano quipped during a Zoom call with media Wednesday.
Logano won his third title in November in the Team Penske No. 22 Ford, sparking debate about whether NASCAR’s current playoff format is the best way to determine the top-tier series’ worthiest champion. Few could make a strong case for that being Logano in 2024, when he won four points races — although that was second only to Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson’s six such victories — had 13 top-10 finishes and rarely had the car to beat over 37 point races.
He got huge breaks along the way, too. He used what amounted to a Hail Mary to win at Nashville Superspeedway — stretching his empty fuel tank through five overtimes — just to qualify for the postseason. And then he was actually eliminated from playoff contention in the second round, only to be reinstated when Alex Bowman’s Hendrick Chevrolet failed an inspection after the race.