Joey Logano emerged as the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series champion, becoming only the 10th driver in history to win the title three times.
The No. 22 Team Penske driver overcame penalties and a tense battle with his teammate and championship contender Ryan Blaney to take victory at Phoenix and secure the title.
Blaney finished second behind Logano as he failed to defend his title, while William Byron and Tyler Reddick finished third and sixth respectively. Their result left Kevin Harvick feeling Byron and Reddick ‘can’t motivate themselves like Logano to go that extra mile in the NASCAR Playoffs to challenge for the title.
Many may have seen Logano as the unlikely winner of the 2024 Cup Series, given the difficulties he faced at the start of the season. Harvick says ‘everything came together’ for Logano at Phoenix as he executed another solid playoff campaign.
And the Team Penske driver shared with Harvick what he felt was the ‘turning point’ in his season on his Happy Hour Podcast as he reflected on his third NASCAR championship win.
Joey Logano outlines the 600-lap tyre test at North Wilkesboro as the ‘turning point’ in his season
The 2024 season got off to a ‘rough’ start, by Logano’s own admission. Retiring from the Daytona 500, the No. 22 driver grabbed only one top 10 finish in the opening five races, finishing ninth at Las Vegas.
Logano shared that he and his team had a tyre test at North Wilkesboro to find the solution to his early woes in the season, with the 34-year-old completing more than 600 laps of the course.
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With Team Penske taking the test ‘very seriously’, this is what changed the No. 22 driver’s fortunes, as he said that he carried all he learned from the session all the way to the final race at Phoenix.
Talking about his start to the season, Logano told Harvick: “Yeah it really was, and you’re right. It was rough and it was not fun in any way! There was actually plenty of times where you said: ‘you having fun yet?’ And I go: ‘ah Kevin, have a good time up in the booth!’
“But I think the turning point for us, we had a tyre test and North Wilkesboro, and we took that test very seriously. We ran, I don’t remember how many laps it was, it was 600-something laps, something like that, maybe more.
“We were getting after it and for a test and that many changes and going, it was a lot. And we learned a lot that day.
“And these days, you don’t get practice to really swing at the car very often. You don’t get test sessions but that was the one, this year. We maximised that and a lot of things that we learned from that test we carried over to even here at Phoenix. Our short-track package got pretty solid.”
How did Joey Logano turn it around to win the 2024 Cup Series?
Missing out on victory at Richmond, Logano’s fortunes did not hugely improve when looking at his regular season results, given that he only secured eight top 10 finishes all season. Nevertheless, he secured his place in the playoffs with victory at Nashville.
The No. 22 driver did not look to mess around when the playoffs came around, as he immediately secured his place in the Round of 12 by winning at Atlanta.
In the next round, Logano was actually eliminated from the playoffs with his eighth place at the Roval not being enough to advance to the Round of 8. However, the 34-year-old was put through after Alex Bowman was disqualified for not meeting the minimum weight requirements.
With his playoff place reinstated, Logano secured his spot in the Championship Race with victory at Las Vegas, giving him two weekends to prepare for Phoenix. The Team Penske put his regular season issues behind him as he beat his teammate Blaney to add his name to the elite list of NASCAR drivers.