Joey Logano: NASCAR Cup Playoffs 2025 Preview

Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano’s title defense begins this Sunday at Darlington, with just as many doubters throughout the garage as ever. 

It’s been a very Joey Logano type season for the No.22 team. He enters the playoffs with just one win, seven top-10’s including three top-fives. His win at Texas was impressive, but apart from that has not shown legitimate race winning speed. 

He was running at the front of Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona as the laps ticked away late in the final stage, but ended up spinning out from the lead with 13 laps to go. 

Logano’s bread and butter this season has been short tracks and intermediates. His top-10’s include an eighth place at Martinsville, ninth at Kansas, second at North Wilkesboro, fourth at Nashville, ninth at Sonoma and Iowa, and a fourth place at Richmond. His road course speed has been surprisingly solid compared to the past, but still only got inside the Top-10 at Sonoma. 

Lackluster regular seasons are nothing new for Logano in recent years, and history has proven he knows how to turn it on in the playoffs. He entered last year’s playoffs in very similar fashion, with just one win and not a lot of solid runs, but then went out and won three of the final 10 races en route to the title. 

This season, Logano begins 12th in the playoff standings, just +1 to the cutline. 

If Logano’s playoff run is gonna get off to a fast start, the first round lines up well for him. Darlington and Gateway open the round of 16, both are tracks he’s won at before in recent years. He’s also won at Bristol multiple times, but not since 2015. That doesn’t include his Bristol dirt win. 

If Logano makes it to the round of 12, he’ll see Loudon, Kansas and the Charlotte ROVAL. While the ROVAL has only gotten him two top-fives, he does have wins at Loudon and Kansas. He has three Kansas wins, most recently in the 2020 playoffs. He has two Loudon wins, but none more recent than 2014. 

If he makes the Round of 8, this is when Logano should scare the field. At Las Vegas, Talladega and Martinsville, he has a combined eight wins. Four came at Las Vegas, three at Talladega and one at Martinsville. 

Time and time again, Logano has shown that if he gets to the round of 8, he almost always delivers a clutch moment to advance. Getting to that point will be a challenge, but if he gets that far, don’t be surprised if Logano is hoisting his fourth Cup Series title in Phoenix this November.