Joey Logano eliminated from NASCAR title fight: “They were trying to give it to us”

There will be no ‘even-year-Logano’ championship in 2026, but the Team Penske star certainly has a lot to be proud of.

Logano won the NASCAR Cup Series title in 2018, 2022, and 2024, but he wasn’t even inside the Chase field until mid-summer. But since then, Logano has climbed to fifth in the standings.

And for a brief moment Sunday at Martinsville, it appeared that he was going to keep those title hopes alive into the Homestead finale. As the Joe Gibbs Racing cars and Kyle Larson faced setbacks, Logano was collecting stage points and in contention for the race win.

Two costly pit stops ultimately took him out of contention. First, he had to make an extra stop under green to tighten a wheel, and later dragged a crew member out of his pit box as they struggled to pull a wrench out of the rear window. Logano finished a disappointing 18th, and is officially eliminated from title contention.

Watch: Logano bummed after Martinsville: ‘We lost as a team’

“We kind of had them where we wanted them,” said Logano after the race. “They were trying to give it to us and we gave it right back, so just frustrating is what it is. You win as a team and lose as a team and today we’re gonna lose as a team. It just stings when you do that. When we look at the last couple of weeks the opportunity was there at the end of those races to do it. We’re out of it now, which stings. On one hand, you look at the comeback we had from the regular season and have a chance to win a championship all down to one race to go. That’s something to be proud of, but, at the same time, it’s really easy to find 60-plus points sitting on the table over the last three or four weeks. It is what it is. That’s racing for you. We’ll move on.”

Logano went on to say that “there are plenty of positives” after earning three victories since July and leading the way for all Ford drivers in the standings. He is also within 40 points of the runner-up spot in the championship, leaving the No. 22 team with a realistic shot at finishing second in the standings.

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