Joey Logano admits it will be a ‘slow climb back to the top’ amid early season struggles

Last year was a down year for Joey Logano, but this season has slowly turned into an absolute disaster for the Team Penske driver. The two-time NASCAR champion has not done well despite early speed.

So far this season, Joey Logano has a single top-10 finish, P9 at Las Vegas. He was P11 at COTA and that was a nice turnaround for this 22 team. Outside of those two races, Logano has finished P32, P28, P34, and P22.

The last time Logano went without a top-5 finish in the first six weeks of the season was in 2012. That was his last season with Joe Gibbs Racing which ultimately ended in him losing his ride, just for a little reference point. The only thing is, he has two top-10s by this point in the season that year.

So, his worst start since 2011-2012 and there is really no end in sight. This week on his SiriusXM NASCAR Radio appearance, Logano talked about the struggles. It’s not going to be easy to bounce back.

“It’s a slow climb back to the top, it always is,” Joey Logano said, via Racer.com. “But you have to start slowly, grabbing the little victories here and there. Little things that we’re doing well on and off the track. And there is, and we’re slowly grabbing some points back up through the ranks a little bit.

“We’re going to Richmond this weekend (and) that is one of my favorite racetracks, one of our best racetracks — maybe our best racetrack as the 22 team. So I look forward to having a solid run there, scoring some stage points, putting ourselves in position to win. That’ll be key. I feel more confident at Richmond than I have at really any other track this year, so hopefully we can have a solid run.”

Joey Logano should be excited about this week. He runs well at Richmond. In his career, Logano has two wins and two poles at the track. In the Next Gen era, Logano has an average finish of 8.5 at Richmond.

That is more impressive when you look at his average starting position in those races, 17.25. Logano has not qualified in the top-10 at Richmond in the Next Gen era.

A top-5 would go a long way to getting this team back on track. A championship-caliber driver should not struggle this much. However, that is the reality right now. Bad luck has been a factor, but so has raw speed. Will Ford, Team Penske, and Joey Logano turn things around soon?