November 4, 2022 | By Lee Spencer

Joey Logano is "Ready to go to battle" with the Championship 4 at Phoenix

PHOENIX—Entering the 2018 Championship 4 weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Joey Logano was so far off the radar that even he referred to the title bout as “The Big Three and me.”

Logano led a race-high 80 laps and held off Martin Truex Jr., by 1.725-seconds to win his first Cup title. Playoff contenders Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch finished third and fourth, respectively.

Fast forward four seasons. Those “Big Three” are nowhere to be found. Harvick and Busch were eliminated after the Round of 16. Truex, who hasn’t won in his last 43 attempts, failed to qualify for the Playoffs. Now, Logano, 32, is now the veteran of the bunch.

“I’m in a different position than I’ve been here in the past,” Logano said. “I like this position a lot more. It’s a lot more comfortable, I can promise you that. Just being here over and over again, right? You know what’s coming around the corner next. You know how today goes. You know how the week before this is, then the weekend itself, race day. Race day is just chaotic the whole time.

“It’s not just another race. It’s not that. Everyone likes to say that. Everyone that comes to championship Media Day says, ’It’s just another race. Just act like it’s another race.’ That’s a bunch of BS. It’s not just another race. It’s bigger than any race you’ve ever been in, and it changes the way you approach it, for sure.”

This year’s “Three” are all 20-somethings. Ross Chastain, 29, has never qualified for the postseason in Cup. In Christopher Bell’s first playoff appearance, the 27-year-old driver finished 12th in 2021. Chase Elliott, who won the 2020 Cup title in his fifth year on the tour and his first trip to Championship 4, has advanced ever since. The second-generation racer turns 27 on Nov. 28.

Since NASCAR introduced the current Playoff format in 2014, Logano has been in the mix five times. He feels experience will play in his favor on Sunday.

“Racing for a championship, it’s bigger than any other race,” Logano said. “You have to learn to handle that pressure. The only way you know how to do that is going through it multiple times.

“I feel like that gives not just myself but my whole race team a clear advantage going into this race on top of some of the other things we already know. I feel great about where we’re at. I feel great that we’ve been here so many times and we can focus on doing our jobs.”

When it comes to having an advantage, Logano and his Paul Wolfe-led crew should also benefit from being the first team locked into the Championship 4 after the No. 22 Penske team’s win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. While the other three drivers were fighting to race their way into the final round, Wolfe could concentrate on his Phoenix package.

“I feel like we’re in a great spot right now,” Logano said. “I feel like our team is in a great spot for a lot of reasons. For one, we’re not happy to be here. We’re not just happy to be in the Championship 4. This isn’t enough for us. What’s driving the 22 team, is to win this thing.

“With that mentality, and the three weeks we’ve had since Vegas, to really focus on here, it’s going to give us a huge advantage to not only have a good practice plan and set our car up, but also execute this race correctly on top of the experience that we got.

“I’ve never felt more solid in this position than I do right now. With that said, I’m ready to go racing, ready to get out there. I know that. We feel prepared. We’re ready to go to battle.”