Joey Logano looks like he could be NASCAR’s next champion and he means business

Joey Logano, the only NASCAR Cup driver advancing to this year’s championship race so far, said he doesn’t have fun driving a race car.

“I’ll go to a go‑kart track and have fun,” Logano said. “That’s not what this is about. This is about winning.”

The No. 22 Team Penske driver said the same of his third victory of the season at Kansas Speedway on Sunday; The post-race celebrations, relief and, ultimately, the knowledge that he’ll have another chance to compete for a Cup championship — that is the fun part. The racing itself?

“This is a job,” Logano said. “Putting food on the table for not only my family, but countless others that helped this race team. No, I don’t look at it as fun. I look at it as a job to win.”

Logano’s intensity translated into successful blocks of second-place finisher Kevin Harvick in the final 40 laps of the Hollywood Casino 400, a playoff race that ended without the side-by-side competing or late-lap passing that critics of NASCAR’s intermediate track package wanted to see.

Logano instead defended his way to the Championship 4 by keeping the series points leader stalled behind him through the checkered flag. Harvick, who finished in second, credited Logano’s lack of mistakes.

“There were a lot of things that could happen with lapped cars,” Harvick said. “Him guessing wrong, me being able to run the bottom or run the top (lane) or get a good run.

“... It never materialized.”

Now Logano, the 2018 Cup champion who was five points below the championship cutoff before the Round of 8, has the opportunity to repeat his title-winning season, in which he won the first race of the semifinal round to eventually win the series crown.

“I definitely think it’s somewhat of an advantage to us,” No. 22 crew chief Paul Wolfe said of the early victory in the Round of 8. “Whether we want to look at stats of who won the first race (to win) the championship, that’s great.”

Harvick, who sits 41 points over the field, said he’s targeting the next race at Texas to secure his spot in the final race, and Denny Hamlin (+20) could also be a likely Championship 4 competitor despite his struggles at Kansas. Multiple drivers said last week that the Round of 8 “feels like” six drivers competing for two spots based on where Harvick and Hamlin sit in points.

Logano claimed one of those spots, and has the advantage of more time to prepare for the final show. He said having the “weight lifted off (his) shoulders” is only part of it.

“The ability to start working on your Phoenix car, not worry about your Texas and Martinsville car — I don’t want to say that — but you’re 100% focused on one more race,” Logano said.

There could be other “underdogs” who emerge over the course of the next two races — such as Alex Bowman, who finished third at Kansas, or Chase Elliott, who has had the best average finish in the playoffs — but Logano said he’s embracing that role for now, and was in the same underdog situation when he upset the “Big 3” of Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. in 2018.

“I’m A-OK with being the underdog,” Logano said. “Kind of been there for most of my career.”

Logano, who was flying under the radar without a win since before the pandemic, becomes a very possible 2020 champion with the advantage of more time to focus on a final car, the comfort in competing as an “underdog” and the knowledge of returning to the track where he won earlier this season for the final event.

“We know we’re in it,” Logano said. “Just got to stay healthy, get there, go for the big trophy when we get out there again and try to win another Phoenix race.”

And if he does that, maybe then, he’ll have some fun.

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NASCAR AT KANSAS FINAL RESULTS

This story was originally published October 18, 2020 at 10:37 PM.

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription