Joey Logano fails inspection twice, penalized ahead of championship at Phoenix

Bad news for Joey Logano and his No. 22 team as they prepare to race for a third NASCAR championship in the last seven seasons. Logano’s car failed tech not once but twice and that comes with penalties.

Joey Logano is going to lose pit stall selection, as well as, a crew member. That is typically the car chief who is ejected. Team Penske wants to be at 100% for both Logano and Ryan Blaney and already they are starting behind the ball.

Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports reported that Logano did pass a third time. If he had failed then he would have been made to go to the tail end of the field to start the race.

Logano car failed on second time through. Typically that is lose a crew member and pit selection. Failing a third time typically would be tail of field and pass through. https://t.co/z9blqn3HEj

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) November 9, 2024

Joey Logano is hoping to win his third championship this weekend. Even these small setbacks add up. With how good Logano is at this track, I wouldn’t count him out by any means.

Qualifying coming up will let us know a lot more. Not the end of the world, but when you’re talking about margins and essentially splitting hairs, everything matters.

The one thing that is going to go to Logano’s benefit, the fact that he won two three weeks ago. His victory at Las Vegas feels like it was a long time ago. While it wasn’t that long ago, in terms of race prep, Logano and his crew have ha a lot more than the other Championship 4 drivers.

This was the gameplan in 2018 and in 2022. Does that plan work this time around in 2024?

Joey Logano has a teammate to race

Looking at the field, this track, recent history – it’s hard to say that anyone besides Ryan Blaney or Joey Logano are going to win this race and the championship. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Two teammates having to put it all on the track for a title? Who doesn’t want to watch that? Logano and Blaney are going to push one another to the limit. If the last two seasons are any evidence, we are going to see a great race on the track.

However, I don’t want this to only be a two-horse race. Having Tyler Reddick and William Byron being competitive is essential to Sunday being a good race as well. 23XI Racing has a huge challenge ahead of them fighting off Penske and Hendrick Motorsports.

Joey Logano is going to be dinged a little bit. Let’s see how that affects his performance and the overall championship race tomorrow.