DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano has heard all the noise. Despite middling regular seasons for the last few seasons, the No. 22 team has shown up when it counted during the Playoffs, scoring two of the last four championships.
Gone are the Playoffs in 2026 and The Chase returns. Points are a premium throughout the regular season, with the regular-season champion earning a hefty 25-point advantage over second place once The Chase begins at Darlington Raceway in September. The next 14 positions will each have five-point increments in between every position.
Logano hasn’t cracked the top 10 in regular season points in each of the last three seasons, including a 15th-place effort in his most recent championship run in 2024. He did, however, finish runner-up to Chase Elliott in the 2022 regular season, a lofty 130 points behind the No. 9 team, before winning his elusive second championship.
Admittedly, Logano was a fan of the old Playoff system, noting the immense amount of pressure teams fought, laying it all out on the line in must-win situations. Now, there’s little room for error, which would make a fourth championship that much more special.
“I told [my team] this would be the sweetest moment to go get this one,” Logano said on Wednesday during Daytona 500 Media Day. “All of them have been great, don’t get me wrong. All of the championships are special, but just to shut the haters up would be great. I’m just sick of hearing it all, so that’s all I need to hear and if we can get this one, that would definitely mean a little bit more.”
To run towards the front of the pack more consistently, Logano knows the No. 22 team needs more raw pace. He has always had a knack for being around at the finish of races, but has consecutive seasons with seven top-five and 13 top-10 finishes, tied for his lowest in 13 seasons with Team Penske.
“I think if you look at us like we usually were able to come up with something by the end of the race and you finish well, that’s kind of the old-school way of doing it,” Logano added of his 2025 campaign. “You’ve got to score stage points, and the only way you score stage points is to just be fast. You’ve got to qualify up front. You’ve got to run up front. That’s where the stage points really come into play. At the end of the race things happen – attrition or strategy – things play out different and you can manufacture something, but stages are all about speed and that’s what we’ve got to continue to work on.”
Logano enters 2026 a new man with a fresh look. In 2019, he announced he was diagnosed with Alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes hair to stop growing. After another flare up over the offseason, he decided it was time to shave his head completely.
“It’s very refreshing, I will say. You can do this haircut at home,” Logano said with his signature chuckle. “I gave my son the clippers and said, ‘Have at it’ because I figured he would have fun doing that, my oldest. I just said, ‘Here, have fun.’ And then my wife came home and she’s like, ‘What happened.’ And I’m like, ‘I had to cut my hair.’ My wife said I needed to do that. She said I needed to and I said, ‘Whatever you want is what I do.’”
Logano hasn’t noticed much of a change, but admitted that while racing shifter karts at home with his family, he could feel the air flow on top of his helmet through the vents. That could come in handy again during the Cup season.
“Unless it’s been as cold as it’s been lately, so it’s not quite as nice,” he said. “It’s a big difference. My beanie game has definitely come up. That’s a thing now.”
Logano ran the 11th quickest time during Daytona 500 qualifying, and will start sixth in the opening America 250 Florida Duel at Daytona on Thursday evening.