NASCAR insider believes playoff drivers will ‘regret’ letting Joey Logano advance

There was a moment in time where it looked like Joey Logano was going to be one of the four drivers eliminated at the Roval. He ended up surviving, yet again. Ross Chastain was desperate and did all he could, including wrecking Denny Hamlin and himself, to stop it.

Denny Hamlin expressed that he would have worked with Ross Chastain more if he had known the points situation. In other words, Hamlin wouldn’t have made the pass for P18 or whatever it was they were racing for to ensure Joey Logano would be eliminated.

Instead, Logano has moved on, and that is something that the playoff drivers remaining may end up regretting. At any rate, they have to prevent Logano from winning at Las Vegas.

Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic believes this is something that could come back to bite the field. Logano is too dangerous in the Round of 8.

“I just want to say this, too. You let Joey Logano onto the next round,” Bianchi said on The Teardown podcast. “They are going to regret this. You picked them to be in the Championship 4, Jeff, you called it. This guy’s one of those horror movie monsters that you can’t put down, and he just finds a way to get in, and they did it again.”

In 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024, Joey Logano won the first race of the Round of 8. He advanced to the Championship 4, of course, each of those years. In three of those seasons, he won the championship.

Logano, historically, has needed a win to make it to the championship round. So, Las Vegas is going to be very telling. Then you have Talladega, which on its face feels like a good thing for the rest of the playoff drivers. Dega is just enough chaos to keep Logano from making a strong run like he could at a track like Homestead, which is usually in that slot on the schedule.

However, we saw just how close Joey Logano came to winning at Talladega earlier this year. Austin Cindric got the win, but it could have just as easily been the 22. Penske knows how to control and dominate the drafting tracks with their four-car (including the 21) pack.

I’m not sure Logano is on his way to his fourth championship. It feels like other drivers have had better seasons and playoff runs up to this point. And when we talk about winning a race, it is harder said than done. Las Vegas has been a great track for Penske, but there’s a reason why they run the race. You never know what will happen.

Joey Logano is advancing to the Round of 8. He will be on everyone’s radar this week at Vegas.