Is there any other championship format you want to throw at Joey Logano because he will probably find a way to contend in that one too?
There was a subset of NASCAR fans who felt like they locked the Team Penske No. 22 driver out of the mix when the Sanctioning Body brought back the Chase for the Championship to replace The Playoffs that Logano won three times in 11 years.
In those years, the critics concluded that Logano did not have the overall body of work to warrant the championship, seasons that featured wins but not season-long consistency.
That sentiment was again accurate this summer when Logano found himself winless and outside of the top 16 with a statistically small chance of becoming the eventual champion.
Then came two regular season wins to get him up to ninth in the final regular season standings. Three strong races to open the Chase, culminating with a victory in the Bristol Night Race, now has him third in the standings and 16 behind Kyle Larson with seven to go.
Logano says finding another way back to the championship mix has been especially rewarding given what his detractors continue to say about him.
“Again, that is extra motivation,” Logano said. “So, whether they know it or not, when they say what they say, they’re helping me, so thanks. When you hear those comments, I can say they don’t matter, but I’m also like ‘let me prove something to you’ (and) ‘let me show you we can do it in different ways and that this team can do it.’
“So again, there is a long way to go and we're not even in the lead, so the comeback hasn't actually fully happened but we have come a long way a lot further than I expected.”
On one hand, Logano knew he would earn the pole if the rain arrived as forecast, but does he also lament the lost track time to continue making ground on the Toyota teams on intermediate tracks?
“We’ll take the rain, for sure,” Logano said. “Perfect world, we get to practice and qualifying gets rained out. But I thought we were getting both in when I got to the race track this morning. The radar looked pretty good and the forecast didn’t look that bad either.
“I was like ‘okay, we’re going to do it the hard way today.’ That’s what I told the team when I walked into the trailer. But I guess it rained just hard enough. Sure, the curiosity is going to get the best of me, and I’m going to wonder what we had in practice but I also feel very confident about what we brought here this weekend.”
All told, it’s another chance to continue to take jabs at the haters that are also his motivators. His slogan this fall is #4theHaters, referencing his pursuit of a fourth championship.
“I think everyone has picked a lane on the 22 car,” Logano said. “It’s a good place to be. No one is indecisive on whether they like the 22 or not. They either it's love or hate (us) and there's no ‘in the middle’ and good, that's a great place to be.
“I've been around long enough for everyone to make a decision on that, but I can't say I completely understand it. Some parts I guess I can and other parts I'm kind of like, that's not a good enough reason, but it is what it is.”
To wit, Logano said he doesn’t even really understand why he has so many detractors.
"I hate talking about this because I don't feel like I'm a villain in any way," Logano said. "I'm a pretty happy -- the most smiling villain you've ever seen. I'm happy. I'm joking around. I have a good time. I don't see the villain side that people try to put on me.
"I think it's just, again, I guess it's the way we've won our championships and that's just what it is. I don't know. I don't know. I assume when we got the pole today, they said, 'oh, it's gifted to him today.'"
They did.
"It's gifted to him all the time. I see the comments coming our way and it doesn't matter, but I'm like 'okay, sure, it rained and it worked out in our favor, but we also won last week and that's why we had the metric work in our favor.
“It's earned. We knew the rules when we started the season. Again, everybody knows the rules and strategizes the best way you can. That doesn't make me a villain in any way. So that's why I say these things don't really matter to me, but I also don't want it to overshadow the good things that we are doing.”
Logano ultimately says this says more about a negative society than it does about his season, success or NASCAR’s format.
“When I look at what we're able to accomplish as a race team at Team Penske, what our foundation is accomplishing, what we're accomplishing personally in our lives right now, all those things should not be overshadowed by negative people,” Logano said. “Negative people should not run society and should not run your life.
“Unfortunately, that happens a lot in our world. And that's why I hate talking about it. I hate shining a light on haters and negative people because there's so much positive going on that the light should be on.”
