NASCAR Cup Series: 5 playoff drivers who might not be back in 2024
By Asher Fair
4. Joey Logano
Like Kyle Busch, two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano only has two top five finishes and a further three top 10 finishes so far this season. Logano, however, does sit 13 points above the playoff cut line, thanks to a recent uptick in performance from Ford and Team Penske.
The driver of the No. 22 Ford sits in 14th place in the point standings, but he is 16th in the playoff picture since two drivers below him have won.
Though it is entirely possible that the remainder of the regular season won't produce any more new winners, the current playoff picture indicates that simply being 14th in points probably won't be good enough to get Logano a seventh straight playoff berth.
All things considered, Logano has not been as much of a factor as he usually is since winning the 2022 championship. His only win last season came at Atlanta Motor Speedway in a superspeedway race, and that means that he is on a 49-race win drought. In last year's playoffs, he became the first ever reigning series champion to be eliminated in the first round.
He did win at North Wilkesboro Speedway back in May, but that was in the non-points All-Star Race, so that win did not lock him into the playoffs. That said, you cannot count out the driver who has been to every single Championship 4 that has been contested in an even-numbered year since the modern format was introduced a decade ago.