Joey Logano was jokingly blunt when asked on Wednesday where he is in comparison to the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series Chase field. 

“Ninth,” joked Logano, the No. 9 seed in the Chase. 

The three-time champion surged to an improbable top 10 seed after struggling mightily over the first half of the season before winning at North Wilkesboro on July 19 and Richmond on Aug. 15 to work his way not just above the Chase cut line, but all the way up to ninth. 

“I do feel like we’re much better than ninth at the moment,” Logano said. “We’ve come from a ways back, and so now if I look at the last seven, eight races, we’re the best car, so I do feel like we’re in contention to do this. Now, we haven’t completely climbed out of the hole that we’ve dug ourselves, but we’re the team that can do it and we’ve got that momentum on our side, so I feel strong about that.”

Despite new format, Joey Logano still thinks he can win the championship

Logano hasn’t finished outside of the top-18 since the calendar flipped to July. Over the last eight races, he has three top fives and four top 10s. 

Logano has been counted out of championship contention before, such as in 2018, 2022 and 2024. In all three years, he won the championship. In 2024, he did so with the worst average finish for a champion in Cup Series history. 

Logano’s three titles, while all impressive in their own right, were all aided by NASCAR’s playoff format, which is no longer in use. If he wants a fourth title, Logano will have to put together 10 solid races in a row. 

But the No. 22 team has a tendency to show up in a big way when they’re least expected to. 

“That’s a reputation that we’ve earned over the years is that, unfortunately, during the regular season we seem to just be okay,” Logano said, “And then it gets to game time and the 22 starts to show up. So I feel confident in our team that we can do it. People think that way because we have done it and we’ve done it multiple times, so I feel like we can show up again when it matters and do it in a different format.”

Quotes provided by NASCAR Media.