Joey Logano, the 2018 Cup champion, has already branded himself the favorite at NASCAR’s 2022 Playoffs get underway.
“You know me—I always feel like I’m the favorite,” Logano said on Thursday during NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Media Day at the Charlotte Convention Center. “I race that way. That confidence is very important, and I think we have reason to feel that way.
“If I look at the last five races, we’ve scored more points than anybody—44 points more than anybody the last five races. That says a lot about our team, shows where we are about maximizing our days, and that’s what the Playoff is about…
“I told my team this yesterday—we’re the favorites.”
Saturday at Darlington Raceway, where the first of 10 Playoff races will be run on Sunday, the self-professed favorite made a big statement by winning the pole: his second of the season at Darlington. He also started here from the pole in the spring and went on to win that race.
With the pole on Saturday, and his winning record at Darlington this season, Logano has the right to be perhaps a little cocky.
“I don’t know if cocky is the right word,” Logano said with a chuckle Saturday. “But confident is something that I think is so important going into the playoffs when the pressure is on. I need to feel like I’m the best and I need to have reason to feel that way as well and, like I said, through the last five or six races we have all the reason in the world to be confident right now and to continue what we’re doing. Like I said, we’ve scored more points than anyone over the last five races by 44 points, so we’re doing it right now. We just have to continue that. It’s not just the driver that’s confident, it’s the whole team. Everyone is firing away right now and doing the right things, so we just have to continue that.”
That doesn’t mean he won’t be willing to send a message to the rest of the field with a strong run Sunday.
“I do,” Logano said. “You want to win anytime that you can. This sport is so hard to get wins. Look at how many winners there were this year. It’s hard to get one. It’s hard to stack up five or six of these things. It’s tough, so anytime you can be up front you want to do it.
“Does it send a statement? Absolutely. It sends a statement that you’re coming out of the gates swinging, but 10 weeks is also a long time. A lot of things happen throughout the next 10 weeks, so you just have to be that ultra-level of intensity and performance that you can bring has got to last for 10 weeks. That’s a long time, but there’s no reason why we can’t do it. We’ve done it plenty of times before. That’s what makes this part of the season so great, but to your point about confidence, this is a big boost that kind of keeps you rolling through the 10 weeks. Once you start getting beat down, then it gets a little tougher and tougher, but right now we’re on that roll and we’re gonna try to continue that.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.