MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Joey Logano’s trip to Phoenix next weekend marks his fifth time in the Championship Four and the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series champion said the playoffs mark the most stressful time of the year for racing’s crew chiefs. 

“As many times as you feel stress and you feel the pressure, you’d rather have the pressure than not have the pressure,” Logano said. “You want to keep pressure on for 10 weeks. That’s the goal when you start the playoffs. It becomes more and more stressful as the playoffs go.”

Entering Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, Logano is the only driver guaranteed a position in the Championship Four at Phoenix. He earned that berth two weeks ago with his Las Vegas victory. The seven drivers seeking to fill the other three spots are Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell. 

The 32-year-old Logano said he’s not only older, but wiser now than in his previous title runs. 

“When you get to these moments in the playoffs, at any point, it’s not win or lose, it’s win or learn,” Logano said. “That’s kind of how I’ve looked at it over the years and it’s helped me become a stronger person on-and-off the race track.”

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Chase Briscoe believes he has underachieved in some areas this year, but he has learned a great deal and grown “a lot.”

“I feel way more confident in what I’m doing, and I feel like I belong in the Cup Series a lot more,” Briscoe said. “I feel like I’ve achieved a lot of the goals and checked a lot of boxes that I wanted to check going into the second year of the Cup Series, but from a results standpoint you always want more.

“I wouldn’t say just making it to the top eight (in the playoffs) was an overachieving moment for us because I felt like from a speed standpoint, we are a top eight car when we put it all together. We just haven’t done that as consistently as others, so I felt like I underachieved a lot just in my performance. I’ve just got to get better and it’s gonna come as I get more experience.”

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Hendrick Motorsports drivers Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson said Saturday they were pleased to learn that teammate Alex Bowman will return to the No. 48 next weekend for the season finale at Phoenix. 

“That’s great for himself, his mind and knowing that he can do it,” Larson said. “He’s been working really, really hard. I don’t get to work out at the gym quite as often as he does, but I know he’s been working out multiple times a day every day.”

Elliott said he was “super happy” to see Bowman return next week. 

“Hopefully, he can avoid further injury and continue to stay healthy,” Elliott said. “He’s got a great person with unfortunate experience in the area in Dale (Earnhardt Jr.). Dale was able to overcome his injuries and come back and have success. I think Alex will do the same.” 

 

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