Kevin Harvick shouts out Joey Logano crew chief Paul Wolfe for new nickname after gutsy call at Las Vegas

Joey Logano’s crew chief, Paul Wolfe, will go under a new name until further notice following the No. 22 team’s upset victory in last Sunday’s Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas.

Logano, fresh off clinching his spot in the Championship 4 at Phoenix on Nov. 10, said that Wolfe would be known as “Big Ball Paul” from now on. That’s a fitting name for Wolfe, Kevin Harvick said on Tuesday’s “Happy Hour” podcast, seeing that Wolfe’s in-race decisions have guided the No. 22 team to three victories this season.

“Hey, you got to make the big calls,” Harvick said. “In these scenarios where you got to make a decision, and so many of these crew chiefs that haven’t been in that position like Paul Wolfe has to call these championship style moments and say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna ride this out.’ They made the call to run the fuel mileage out. They know what they needed to do on the mileage. And when you get that confidence to be able to say, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ and you just do it.

“But we’ve seen them do it. You saw them win at St. Louis this year with the things that his teammate did. With that style of racing and fuel mileage and all the things that come with being able to put yourself in a position to make those calls is one thing. But to be able to make the gutsy calls, it seems like the Penske organization can turn those moments into wins. And win in the moments where not supposed to.”

Joey Logano onto Championship 4 after Las Vegas victory

In each of Logano’s wins in 2024 (Nashville, Atlanta, Las Vegas), you would not necessarily say that he has had the fastest car. In fact, Logano has led just 24 laps total in those three races. But what has put him in the winning position has been Wolfe’s decisions to allow Logano to stretch out his fuel tank. At Las Vegas, Logano ran the remaining 72 laps on a single tank of fuel.

Perhaps you can call it the even year magic, as Logano has made the Championship 4 six times — all in even years. Both of his Cup Series championships, 2018 and ’22, came in even years. Three races remain until NASCAR crowns a champion. Once again, Logano is one of the final four.

Wolfe certainly deserves some of the credit.

“When there’s an opportunity like that at the end of the race where there’s a long run and you’re able to make good mileage, that’s one of our strengths that we have with the Ford. So, there’s an opportunity there to run it long,” Logano said after the race, via Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports.

“And when you put it together with Paul Wolfe, an incredible crew chief, we call him Big Ball Paul now. He really makes it happen there, our engineers calculating everything.”