Joey Logano enters esteemed company with third Cup title: 'He shows up in the playoffs'

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Joey Logano made history with a performance for the ages, from a mercurial regular season to a playoff run that included three victories over the final 10 NASCAR Cup Series races.

The last of those triumphs came Sunday afternoon as he led the final 53 laps to capture the season finale at Phoenix Raceway and his third career Cup Series championship.

Logano entered esteemed company as just the 10th driver to win a third Cup title. 

"I don't know if I'm the best driver, but I've got the best team, and together we're very well-rounded and can show up when it matters the most," Logano said. "We've got a mentally tough team that can make things happen when it matters."

The 34-year-old driver earned it by bolting to the lead on a restart with 54 laps remaining and then holding off a hard-charging Ryan Blaney for the final 20 laps.

The current Next Gen car on short tracks has become a game of track position and then holding people off, so what Logano did wasn't necessarily extraordinary but with all the pressure of a championship, certainly one of grit.

"Everybody put on defensive clinics today," a frustrated Blaney said. "Everybody I tried to pass, everybody did. So props to them for that. They did a great job."

That last part was a bit of sarcasm but Blaney knew his Team Penske teammate would always be hard to pass.

"It took me a long time to pass a lot of guys," Blaney said. "Joey is one of the best ever, I feel like, so he did an amazing job, didn't make any mistakes in the closing laps when I was kind of catching him.

"Obviously, he did a great job because he's a great race-car driver and did everything he needed to do to win. It's hard for me to say if it's anybody else, would it have been a different outcome. I don't know — there was only one guy, and it was that outcome." 

It was an outcome that at times this year, even during the playoffs, seemed so unlikely. Logano even thought he was eliminated after the Round of 12 (the quarterfinal round) when he didn't earn enough points in the final race at the Charlotte road course. But then Alex Bowman's car failed weight minimums postrace, resulting in his disqualification and Logano then having enough points to advance.

Logano, who won the playoff opener at Atlanta, responded to his second chance by winning the opening race of the Round of 8 (semifinal round) at Las Vegas, vaulting him into a position to vie for the title against three other drivers at Phoenix. The four championship contenders ran in the top 10 all day, with Logano, Blaney and William Byron finishing 1-2-3, while Tyler Reddick placed sixth. 

The second-fastest car overall in qualifying and the fastest among the championship-eligible drivers, Logano minced no words the day before the championship event.

"We got them down now — we just have to put our foot on their throats," Logano said. "We feel pretty strong about our team, and these type of pressure situations we feel really solid about as far as our team in these moments."

That swagger never left.

"I might have used different words, but that's OK — when you win, you can say whatever you want, I guess," said team owner Roger Penske.

Logano said there was he used those words.

"We thrive under pressure, right?" Logano said. "I put myself in high-pressure moments. Part of the reason why I came up here yesterday and started talking crap a little bit is that it puts more pressure on me.

"And it seems like that helps. It's not comfortable. But it seems like as a driver, personally, I'm better that way."

Penske has helped bring out the best in Logano, who struggled as a young driver at Joe Gibbs Racing from 2009-2012 and then found a home at Penske, where he has won titles in 2018, 2022 and 2024, becoming just the fifth driver younger than 35 to win a third title.

"That's typical Joey," Logano crew chief Paul Wolfe said. "He shows up in the playoffs, and he's able to handle this pressure better than anyone in the garage, obviously. That's why he's a three-time champ now."

Not only did Logano win three races in the playoffs, he won at three different style tracks with a drafting-track win at Atlanta, an intermediate track win at Las Vegas and then winning at a short track at Phoenix.

"We got the attitude that we're never out of it, and I think that's what's kept us going and shows in the playoffs so much," Logano said. "Plenty of seasons, especially this season, midway through it, we could have called it a rebuilding year, right? But that would have been the loser thing to say.

"We kept grinding and figuring it out and getting a little bit better and a little bit better."

The same could be said of the championship race that he got a little bit better throughout the race to run fast enough to hold off his teammate in a race where Penske drivers ruled and Logano made sure he remained in the right place at the right time.

"Their team does a really good job, and Joey doesn't make any mistakes and knows what's important to focus on," Byron said after falling short in Hendrick's 40th anniversary season. "I would just compliment Penske as a whole. They had the two best cars today, and it was really a battle between them throughout the day.

"I was just hoping that they would make some mistakes and get up in there. Joey just did a good job executing."

All Byron had was hope. Logano didn't make that mistake.

It would seem that a driver who finished 15th in the regular-season standings would make a mistake. Instead, the driver lowest in regular-season points ever to make the Championship 4 ended up winning it all.

"I love the playoffs," Logano said. "I love it, man."

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.