Count Joey Logano out of a championship fight at your own risk.
After spending much of the summer looking like he might miss NASCAR’s new Chase entirely, Logano has completely flipped the script. He climbed from 20th to ninth in the standings over a six-race stretch, highlighted by his North Wilkesboro and Richmond victories, and now sits comfortably inside the 16-driver Chase field.
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And here’s why I wouldn’t sleep on him.
The 2026 Chase is a completely different animal. There are no elimination rounds and no win-and-you’re-in safety net. The championship will come down to accumulating points over the 10-race Chase, which could play directly into the hands of a driver as experienced and consistently dangerous as Logano, who is a three-time champion.
This is a three-time champion we’re talking about.
Logano knows how to peak when the pressure rises, and Team Penske knows how to build championship-caliber race cars. He may not have looked like a title favorite three months ago, but suddenly he’s exactly the kind of driver nobody should want sitting next to them in the Chase standings.
The new format may have changed NASCAR’s championship game.
It didn’t change Joey Logano.
And that could be a problem for everybody else.
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