NASCAR: The day no one predicted would change Joey Logano forever

Fresh off winning his third NASCAR Cup Series championship at Phoenix Raceway this past weekend, Joey Logano has been faced with no shortage of controversy and hate on social media, and around the NASCAR world.

The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford not only finished the regular season 15th in the standings, with his single victory at Nashville Superspeedway being the reason he even made the playoffs, but he was also eliminated in the round of 12 before Alex Bowman's disqualification at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval propelled him back in. He then won two of the last four races to win the title.

Logano's average finish of 17.11 in 2024 was the worst by a Cup Series champion in the sport's history. The fact that Logano became the sport's only active three-time champion, and just the 10th ever, to cap off what was a very mediocre season-long effort at best has called the playoff format into question more than ever before.

But that horse has been beaten to death for a while now, and it will continue to be for as long as the current playoff format is in use.

We're here to talk about something else. We're here to take a look at how Logano came out of his early-career shell, and, quite frankly, was able to hone his craft for this specific playoff format, in which he has now won three titles.

Believe it or not, Joey Logano hasn't always been the aggressive, win-at-all-costs driver he's known as now.

Amid Kyle Busch's fall from grace in 2024, the vote for the most hated driver in NASCAR has been a toss-up between Logano and the notorious fan provocateur, Denny Hamlin.

Why is Logano hated? Well, for one thing, winning always turns the NASCAR fanbase against you, no matter who you are, or how you do it. But in Logano's case specifically, it's the way he's won races, and the matter he's gone about his business altogether, that has propelled the hate. Time and time again, he has had no shame in using his front bumper to win races.

In 2015, Logano spun Matt Kenseth for the win at Kansas Speedway. He had already clinched a spot in the round of 8, but his move eliminated Kenseth, leading to the pair's infamous incident at Martinsville Speedway.

In 2018 at Martinsville, Martin Truex Jr. passed Logano cleanly after a nearly10-lap battle, before Logano moved him out of the way to win and punched his ticket to the Championship 4, where he went on to win his first championship.

Logano's perceived "dirty driving", which is perfectly legal by the rule book, has turned fans, and at times, many drivers against him throughout his career. Right or wrong, he's had several run-ins with Hamlin, Busch, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, and many others, just in recent years. But, as he's said so many times, he's not here to make friends. He's here to win.

However, this driving style wasn't a main attribute when he arrived as a 19-year-old, replacing Tony Stewart in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Rather, it's a side effect of a super talented, young, underperforming driver getting pushed around week after week by some of the sport's top veterans.

Whether it be his clumsy incident and subsequent argument with Ryan Newman at Michigan International Speedway in 2010, or being intentionally spun by Harvick on the final lap at Pocono Raceway that same year, it became a recurring theme that Logano was getting used up consistently, and without any consequence for his offenders. Even when he spoke out to defend himself, it was all words and no action, in the eyes of his opponents.

Little did the other drivers know, their actions toward Logano would soon create a monster behind the wheel.

After four underwhelming years at Joe Gibbs Racing saw him win just two races, Logano was dropped by the team, a firing he referenced after winning his third title this past weekend, and he caught a break when Roger Penske hired him to drive the No. 22 Ford in 2013. Logano knew it was his final chance to deliver at a top team.

Early that season at Bristol Motor Speedway, Hamlin intentionally spun Logano while fighting for second place after Logano seemingly chopped in front of the No. 11 Toyota, relegating him to a 17th place finish.

Following the incident, Fox Sports color commentator and Hall of Fame driver Darrell Waltrip said "if he didn't move Jeff Gordon (for the lead), somebody was going to move him. And that's exactly what happened."

This time, though, Logano had finally had enough. Immediately after the race, the Team Penske driver angrily approached Hamlin in the garage area, while Hamlin was still in the car, before he was shoved away by Hamlin's crew. Soon after, Hamlin made a statement that would go on to forever haunt him, and the rest of the competition.

"He said he was coming for me. But I usually don't see him, so it's usually not a factor."

- Denny Hamlin

As fate would have it, Logano and Hamlin found themselves fighting each other for the win the following week at Auto Club Speedway. Heading into turn three, side by side, on the final lap, Logano aggressively ran Hamlin up the track, causing the two of them to wreck and allowing Kyle Busch to win. Hamlin slammed into the inside wall and was sidelined for weeks with a back injury.

Meanwhile, before that incident, Tony Stewart went to the inside of Logano on a late restart, before Logano threw a big block before turn one and cost Stewart numerous positions. Stewart then approached Logano on pit road after the race and attempted to fight him before his crew got involved and separated them.

"For a guy who's been complaining about how everyone else is driving here, it's a double standard... He's a tough guy on pit road until one of his crew guys gets in the middle of it, and until then, he's a scared little kid. And then he sits there and wants to throw a water bottle at me... He's nothing but a little rich kid who's never had to work a day in his life."

- Tony Stewart

While this was just one in a long line of legendary quotes from the man known as "Smoke", in hindsight, it was a rather insightful look into what would become the competitive dynamic between Logano and his competitors moving forward. Now, he was in their heads.

After years of being taken advantage of, Logano, in just the span of a few laps, had ruined one driver's chance to win and taken out another, all with the simple aim of winning the race. As we all know now, that exact mentality has not changed in the slightest. Every time Logano has a sniff of the win, he's going to rattle your cage in some form to take it from you. He may not resort to wrecking someone every time, but you know he's going to take no prisoners.

In today's NASCAR, winning, especially at the right time, is paramount, and nobody has mastered that better than the No. 22 team. It's safe to say that had Logano not acquired that stellar killer instinct and ultra-aggressive style at Fontana after years of being the victim of repeated wrongdoing, he would not be the driver he is today. Maybe he wouldn't even be in the sport anymore.

It was fitting that it was the race after which Stewart said Logano was "nothing but a little rich kid" that turned Logano from the pushed to the pusher, an attribute that has perhaps played the biggest part in him becoming a three-time champion, matching Stewart's career total before even turning 35 years old.