When NASCAR announced its new playoff format for the 2026 Cup Series season, effectively a rendition of the "Chase" format that was used from 2004 to 2013, many fans were interested in seeing how Team Penske's Joey Logano would perform.
Logano, a three-time champion, has never actually led the series in total points scored throughout his career. He won the 2024 championship despite a 15th place finish in the regular season standings and only an 11th place finish in total points.
Add us as a preferred source on GoogleYet had the new format been in place throughout his whole career, he would actually be a four-time champion, rather than just a three-time champion.
We heard for years how "everybody plays by the same rules" and drivers and teams would simply adjust to whatever system is in place; that's certainly what Logano and the No. 22 team did to win championships in three seasons during which they were not the outright class of the field from start to finish, and many fans suggested the same would be true under the new format.
But Logano's start to the 2026 season has done nothing to silence the critics.
Through six races, he has just one finish higher than 15th place, that being a third place effort in the Daytona 500. Ironically, he would have been the points leader after the "Great American Race", had NASCAR not boosted the value of wins from 40 points to 55 after removing the "win and in" element of the postseason setup.
And in Sunday's Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, a race Logano won four years ago, the driver of the No. 22 Ford hit a new low.
He started 29th, was never a factor, fell several laps off the lead lap, and finished 33rd, while teammate Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric placed third and a season-best fifth, respectively.
It would be a massive understatement to say that Logano and the No. 22 team missed the mark at the "Lady in Black"; they finished 33rd on outright pace, which marked one of the worst overall performances we've ever seen from them in Logano's 14 years at Team Penske.
And it resulted in Logano plummeting in the playoff picture.
In 2026, the only thing that matters in terms of qualifying for the playoffs is points. The top 16 drivers in points at the end of the 26-race regular season are the drivers who are set to compete for the championship over the course of the 10-race "Chase".
Logano entered Darlington sitting 11th in the standings, 18 points above the cut line. With an abysmal four-point showing at the track "Too Tough To Tame", he is now tied for the 16th and final playoff spot.
The good news for Logano is that he technically didn't fall out of the playoff picture. He is tied with Spire Motorsports' Michael McDowell for that 16th spot, and Logano owns the tiebreaker thanks to his season-best third place finish at Daytona; McDowell's best finish of the year is only a fifth place effort at Circuit of the Americas (COTA).
McDowell was the one and only driver who started the 293-lap race around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) Darlington, South Carolina oval inside the top 16 but dropped out. He finished 20th and was displaced by teammate Daniel Suarez, who finished seventh and jumped from outside the playoff picture to 14th in the standings.
Martinsville Speedway is scheduled to host the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season's seventh race, the Cook Out 400, this Sunday, March 29, with live coverage set to be provided by Fox Sports 1 starting at 3:30 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and catch all of the action!