“We Are Down”

“Right now, we don’t have that [speed that the Toyotas have]. It’s a tough time. And it’s not like I said, there’s not an easy answer,” Joey Logano’s crew chief Paul Wolfe recently admitted. Now, for Team Penske, which has spent the better part of a decade setting the standard in NASCAR, that’s a startling confession.

Logano and Wolfe have tried finding the right adjustment, but so far, things haven’t fallen into place. But despite the struggles, they are not panicking and are instead leaning on the trust that has carried them to championship glory before. Logano is convinced that Penske can eventually find its way back to the front.

Joey Logano leans on history

“We’re not out. We’re down, but we are not out. And this team is pretty resilient,” Logano said to Matt Weaver in a recent interview.

“We keep grinding. Every year we won the championship, around this time of year, I tell my wife that I just hope to make the playoffs, and then we pop right back into place,” the three-time Cup Series champion said.

Right now, things are looking grim for Logano. He’s 17th, close on the playoff cut line with just 11 races left in the regular season. He’s only finished in the top five twice in 2026, and has yet to reach Victory Lane.

On several weekends, the No. 22 team fielded a car that failed to crack the top 25 in qualifying or in practice. And there have also been self-inflicted mistakes, for instance, when Logano ran into the back of Cole Custer on the pit road in Texas.

That said, Logano continues to keep faith because of Paul Wolfe. He’s led championship-winning teams with both Brad Keselowski and Logano, while helping them get to victory lane 43 times in the Cup Series. He’s one of the top strategists in the garage and has shown before that he can battle through tough stretches and come out stronger on the other side.

In fact, the 2024 season is the perfect example. At this point in that season, Logano’s average finish of 17.9 was his lowest since 2011. But things changed drastically for him when he locked his spot into the playoffs at the end of June, thanks to Wolfe’s decision-making.

Even then, the turnaround was not immediate. Logano finished 19th or worse four times in his final seven races before the playoffs, including two finishes outside the top 30.

Most teams would have seen those results as warning signs. But because their win at Nashville, their only victory of the regular season, had already secured a playoff spot, Wolfe used those final races to test different setups and look for more speed. By the time the playoffs arrived, Logano and Wolfe had found what worked. The No. 22 team put together a strong postseason run, winning three races and eventually the championship.

“Paul’s a racer. He wants to win. He is the most competitive person I think I’ve met, and he does it in a quiet way, so no one really knows,” Logano said about his crew chief in a 2024 interview.

That’s why, despite Wolfe’s concerning confession and the disappointing numbers on paper, the No. 22 team still believes its season can be saved.

Why 2026 makes Logano’s comeback harder

The biggest hurdle standing in the way of Logano right now may not be Ford’s lack of performance compared to Toyota. It could be the new rulebook.

For 2026, NASCAR got rid of the playoff format and brought back a version of the 10-race Chase. It also removed the famous “win-and-you’re-in” rule that drivers like Logano had relied on for years.

Under the old system, a single win could save an otherwise disappointing season. A driver sitting 25th in the standings could still reach the postseason by winning just one race. That option, for better or worse, is now gone.

Instead, the top 16 drivers in the standings after the 26-race regular season will advance to the Chase. The reward for winning has increased, with drivers now earning 55 points instead of 40. However, they still need consistent results to stay near the top of the standings.

So, like 2024, Logano can’t just focus on finding one win over the next two months and expect the pressure to disappear. Even if he gets to the Victory Lane, he will need several strong finishes to officially secure a Chase birth. And that’s something he may find difficult to do.

“Obviously, we’re way behind compared to where we’ve been in the past and where we should be. So we got work to do and hopefully this we can able turn around a little bit,” he said ahead of the Coca-Cola 600 last month, where he finished eighth.

The real challenge is that nothing about the 2026 season suggests that kind of consistency will come easily.