After sweeping the previous round of the 2015 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup, Joey Logano’s season may be on the rails following a dismal day at Texas Motor Speedway. At Martinsville, Logano was on the receiving end of a kamikaze dive bomb by Matt Kenseth, who was seeking retribution after Logano dumped him for the win at Kansas just a couple of weeks before. Going into Texas, Logano was a favorite to win as he had won at Texas in the Spring of 2014. However, 10 laps in his tire grenaded and he was sent to the garage for repairs.
Now Logano heads into Phoenix at the tail-end of the NASCAR Chase field, and his hopes for a Homestead appearance in the Final Four rest on a win there. He doesn’t have a win there, though. As a matter of fact, in 13 starts he only has seven top-10s, the most recent an eighth earlier this year. He’s never finished higher than third there, but that was in 2010. Still, it’s a safe bet not to count him out when the green flag drops.
As much as it pains a substantial amount of fans to see Logano succeeding after NASCAR CEO Brian France (quint)essentially showed a bit of favoritism towards Logano following Kansas, there is no denying that Logano has been the man to beat not just in the Chase, but in the 2015 season as a whole. He’s made a habit of succeeding where he doesn’t usually succeed, like at Daytona in February when he won the Daytona 500. In 14 points-paying starts at Daytona, he only has four top-10s. In 14 points-paying starts at Talladega, he only has five top-10s including his win there in this year’s Chase.
Oct 25, 2015; Talladega, AL, USA; Sprint Cup Series driver Joey Logano (22) celebrates winning the Campingworld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Mandatory Credit: Kevin D. Liles-USA TODAY Sports
The point being, statisticians and analysts can try to play the laws of averages, and the case can be made that Logano hasn’t exactly mastered Phoenix on the Cup level (he has two wins and nine top-10s in nine Xfinity Series starts there). But the No. 22 Todd Gordon – led Penske crew has made it a point to turn the team into a group to be reckoned with. They’re the face of Ford Racing, they’re outshining their Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski, and they’re consistently faster than the rest of the competition.
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Phoenix will be the teams defining moment in 2015, win or lose. They have a huge hurdle to make, because no driver has been able to trounce Kevin Harvick at Phoenix since 2013 since Carl Edwards. Considering that Harvick isn’t certain to make the Final Four at Homestead, it goes without saying that he too will be pulling out all the stops in order to become a repeat Cup champion.
If they can win and make it to Homestead, then 2015 will be defined as the year that they were the best team overall (even if they don’t win the championship). They’ve won more than anyone else in 2015, they’ve contended for the title, and they have had an overall career season. They’ve finished in the top-10 in 26 of 34 races, and with the exception of his last two finishes (37th and 40th at Martinsville and Texas, respectively) he’s been able to rebound the next week following a bad finish.
If they don’t win however, then they will look at 2015 as the year the wheels fell off. They’re a team that has gotten used to winning, so it is highly doubtful they will accept anything less than success.