Denny Hamlin praises Joey Logano for Phoenix performance: ‘Did everything right’

Some have tired to delegitimize Joey Logano’s third NASCAR Cup Series title by panning the current playoff format, but Denny Hamlin decided to praise his fellow veteran instead.

During the latest episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin played a different tune than many media members regarding Logano’s 2024 championship. While it certainly comes with some asterisks, Hamlin believes Logano simply played the system perfect, and he did everything he needed to do right at Phoenix Raceway this past weekend.

“Joey Logano, man. They did everything right,” Hamlin stated. “All I can say is they qualified the best, they had the best short-run speed. He had the best restart of any of the guys on that final restart, and he won a championship.

“I think that — there was no doubt, going into the weekend, I thought that the No. 12 would be the fastest. You could, and in practice, you would say the No. 12 was the fastest, and the No. 22 was right there next to him. But I thought that, generally speaking, the No. 22 just executed the day slightly better, and had a tremendous short-run car and restart. Then, the No. 12 had a tremendous long-run car, and just flat out ran out of laps.”

While Logano’s championship resume may not match up to many of NASCAR’s legends, he certainly deserves credit for what he pulled off in Arizona. Hamlin is giving it to him, as well as Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic, who echoed the driver’s sentiment on the matter.

“We need to give Logano all the credit in the world,” the NASCAR analyst claimed, via The Teardown. “He and crew chief Paul Wolfe know how to rise to the occasion. I will say this until I am blue in the face, this is a system that requires teams to do tough — it puts them in tough situations, and you have to fight your way out of it sometimes. Even when you’re not your best, you’ve got to find a way. This is what they did.

“They didn’t have the best car (at Phoenix). That was either Christopher Bell or Ryan Blaney, one and two, in some order. But they figured out. They got ahead of it. They jumped ahead. Logano got a great restart, and then he fought his way and defended his way to this championship.”

The history books will always say Joey Logano was the champion of the NASCAR Cup Series in 2024, and Denny Hamlin realizes that’s all that matters. As for everything else, it’s just hearsay.