Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano has offered a brutally honest take on his failure to advance to the Championship 4.
The Team Penske star was one of four drivers eliminated from the playoffs following the race at Martinsville on Sunday, joined by teammate Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott.
Logano has won two of the last four Cup Series championships, but will now be unable to claim title number four in 2025, with one of Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, William Byron and Kyle Larson set to take the glory instead.
Logano: The four there deserve to be there
Reflecting openly and honestly on his exit from the playoffs, Logano admitted that, whilst he was 'bummed', he doesn't feel his team did enough to deserve to be there in the end.
“Bummed. I don’t know if there’s another word for it,” Logano explained to the media post-race.
“I’m just bummed that one of us [him or Penske teammate Blaney] didn’t make it.
"Everyone works hard enough to deserve to be there. We just couldn’t get the job done today, or really the last three races. That’s what it comes down to.
“The four there deserve to be there. That’s how I always look at it and this year we didn’t deserve to be there.”
How Martinsville race got away
Logano eventually finished eighth at Martinsville and had been in contention for the win in some parts of the race, finishing stage two in second position behind eventual winner Byron, for example.
So where did it get away from the No. 22 team?
“I feel like I lost control when the Hendrick cars pulled the okie-dokie in front of me and I chose the inside lane, which put me third, and that’s what let the 12 [Blaney] get up there, and then you just kind of get stuck in dirty air," Logano explained.
"I’m kicking myself on that decision, but outside of that, we just weren’t fast enough. That’s the bottom line.
"We weren’t good enough to drive back through either way, but I thought I would have had a chance if maybe I could have made that better earlier in the race.”
