Logano ready to close the deal at Phoenix

Joey Logano is ready to chase a third NASCAR Cup Series championship – more than ready.

“I feel way more prepared than I have before, which is a great feeling,” Logano said at Phoenix Raceway. “I felt really prepared in 2022 as well. I think Paul [Wolfe] really helped with that.”

The Team Penske ace doesn’t believe anything is different for him and his team since the last time they were in the championship race. Logano equated it to hitting the repeating button and getting ready to go again.

Logano and Wolfe were paired together in 2020 and made the championship race, but finished third in the points. They returned in 2022, winning the race and the championship at Phoenix.

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“I think Paul’s leadership has grown – he’s just a detail guy – and we’re all doing it together,” Logano said. “That’s what the two weeks (gave) us the ability to do, is to do it together. Whereas these other teams that are sitting up here, they don’t have the opportunity to do it together because they had to come out here and talk to you (media) guys. We’ve had that opportunity to really dig through together, where it’s not just the crew chief and engineers that know, and the drivers are left in the dark because they weren’t available to be in the meetings.

“We got to do that. So, there shouldn’t be a surprise that comes up to any of us because we’ve run through a lot of scenarios at this point. A lot of different things. I feel like no matter what happens, this team is not going to be out of it because this team is going to be ready for it.”

The No. 22 team was the first to be locked into the championship after winning in Las Vegas, the opening race in the Round of 8. It gave Wolfe and his team two weeks to dig into the car they wanted to compete with and find a way to improve from their spring performance at Phoenix. On that occasion, Logano finished 34th. He did not qualify well (23rd) and was collected in a multi-car wreck in the final stage.

“It doesn’t hurt,” Logano laughed of Wolfe having extra time to prepare. “It doesn’t hurt at all.”

Once their championship spot was clinched, the focus became solely on Phoenix. Logano finished an anonymous 28th at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and drove to a quiet 10th at Martinsville Speedway.

“There are a few things that you get to do,” Logano said of how he spent his time the last two weeks. “One, you focus 100% on one track. You only have a certain amount of time in the day where you can do something, and everyone else has to delegate that time to really every other track besides Phoenix because you have to get here first. Whereas we didn’t even care about the races they were talking about. We were already onto the next one.

“So, a lot of (prep) we did together. But personally, I just watched a lot of Phoenix stuff from the past and went through a lot of different notes and things. You look at everything and be detail-oriented. More than normal. I usually look at a lot of stuff, but definitely a lot more in this scenario.”

A third championship would have Logano standing alone with the most titles among the active full-time Cup Series drivers.