Will Joey Logano be NASCAR Champion? It's a numbers game
Driver of 22 car looking good in '22.
Joey Logano is in it to win it.
The 2018 NASCAR Cup Series Champion heads into final its race at Phoenix with a chance to take his second title, and says he'll settle for nothing less.
"Some competitors are happy and feel accomplished by making the Championship Four, [but] we are not that team," Logano told Fox News Digital's "The Fox Garage" in an exclusive interview.
"We’ve been here five times, it’s great to make it, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a pretty empty feeling when you don’t win."
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Logano won his way into the Championship Four with a victory at Las Vegas. (Will Lester/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Those five times have occurred on every even year since the winner-take-all final race was established in 2014.
"I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or what it is, hopefully we prove it wrong next year, but for this year it’s great," Logano said.
It's also not lost on him that he drives the #22 car for Team Penske.
"There’s a lot of things that just make sense this year, OK, we’ve been saying ‘the 22 in ’22’ all year long, we’ve got this far, we’ve just got to finish it off from here."
Logano had 17 top-ten finishes that included three wins in a year that saw 19 different drivers make it to victory lane in the new, more competitive NextGen car, but said it hasn't been all fun and games like it's been for the fans.
Logano says he doesn't drive for fun, he drives to win. (Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
"At this level, you don’t do it for fun anymore. You do it to compete and to try to win the big trophy. And try to do that for your team and for their livelihoods and for your own livelihood," Logano said.
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Logano won on the current configuration at Phoenix in 2020 and finished eighth in this year's spring race but said his team has learned a lot about what the car can do since then.
"We have a lot better idea of what we’re doing now. I’ve had a few weeks here to review footage of Phoenix in the spring, and watching some of the moves I made on the racetrack, I’m like, ‘What was I thinking?’"
Logano is looking to grab his second NASCAR Cup Series title. (Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
The only thing not pointing in his favor are the pre-race odds, which aren't as even as the rest of his numerology.
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According to NASCAR.com, his chances to win are 3-1, along with Christopher Bell and Ross Chastain at 3-1, while Chase Elliott is the 2-1 favorite to win his second title on Sunday.
Check out the rest of Joey Logano's interview on "The Fox Garage" to find out what he thinks about Ross Chastain's wild wall-ride move at Martinsville