Joey Logano reacts to elimination from NASCAR Playoffs after Martinsville race

It was not meant to be for Joey Logano and Team Penske this season. The 22 was eliminated from the NASCAR Playoffs at Martinsville. Logano will not become a four-time champion this season. It may be the last year of the format that has given him his three titles.

Joey Logano was really good tonight. Late in the race, he had to try to do something different to gain any advantage. The perfect circumstances didn’t line up for Logano and crew chief Paul Wolfe like it has so many times before.

Make no mistake, the Championship 4 drivers are relieved there isn’t a Penske Ford among them. No one wanted to see Logano or Ryan Blaney advance to the final race of the playoffs.

Speaking to the media after the race, Logano lamented his result. He did his best, but his best wasn’t good enough this time.

“I don’t know. It seemed like right at the end of that run, the top five cars started tanking,” Logano said, via Matt Weaver of Motorsport. “But it just seems like the tires like they fall off, then they maintain after a while, and then they run out of rubber, and they fall off huge, they tank. We kind of by the time we passed a couple cars, and you use a lot of tire to pass cars, then everyone’s the same speed, and then they started tanking right at the end. Then the caution came out, right? You gotta do something different, right? You gotta do something different, you can’t do the same.”

When asked if he could have stayed out late, Joey Logano said that wasn’t the move. He had little to no options late to truly take a swing at the win tonight.

“We would have got killed if we stayed out,” Logano said. “That many laps on your tires, there’s no chance. We’re the team to do things, but that wouldn’t even make sense. You could almost argue two tires there, it would have been close. We were almost too far back. Couldn’t close up enough to even get to the lead, you gotta get the lead if you put two tires on. And your only hope at that point is that everyone wrecks each other, right? Becomes demolition derby behind you, [inaudible]. We were just too far back, right? Just couldn’t close the gap. Just wasn’t good enough.”

Tonight, Joey Logano had to win. He couldn’t do that. His run in the NASCAR Playoffs showed that he is always a danger to win and advance. This time around he couldn’t make it work, but I wouldn’t count Logano out of any format that NASCAR decides on in the future.

Team Penske was there. Ryan Blaney could see the promised land. However, Rudy Fugle made the perfect adjustments late. William Byron had a hooked-up No. 24 Chevy. It wasn’t Penske’s year this year. So, Joey Logano will not be the boogeyman everyone fears at Phoenix.