Joey Logano reveals he knew Ryan Blaney’s “game plan” before Championship Race
2024 NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano revealed that he knew about his teammate Ryan Blaney's "game plan" before they entered the title fight at Phoenix Raceway. Logano aced the 312-lap race while Blaney fell shy by 0.330 seconds, finishing second.
The final race of the season witnessed Logano dominate the 1-mile oval. The #22 Ford driver began the championship fight in second, placed his Mustang first and third in Stages 1 and 2, respectively, and led 107 laps before etching his career's 36th triumph.
It's worth mentioning that Blaney's #12 Ford was at par with Logano's #22 Ford's pace. Even though the defending Cup Series champion didn't have a promising qualifying run and settled for a 17th-place start, his track position surged soon after the race went green. Blaney climbed to a P6 finish in the first stage and aced Stage 2.
However, amid Blaney's suggestion that drivers use defensive tactics at the end to safeguard triumph, Joey Logano was asked what he thought about his Phoenix victory. The Team Penske driver said he knew Blaney's "plan" and kept a check on his teammate's strengths. Logano said (via Fox Sports),
"Not only did we have the good restart, which was key, but to be able to hold off the 12 [of Blaney], who was charging pretty hard there at the end, he was pretty fast. That's a lot of pressure. We know what's coming down to the line — it's the championship. It's everything. I know his game plan. I know what was making him good. I raced him earlier in the day, so I knew where his strengths were. I knew where mine were."
Logano's title marked his third and Team Penske's third consecutive Cup Series trophy.
Joey Logano talks about Ryan Blaney's "upper hand" at Phoenix
Ryan Blaney direly needed a win at the preceding race at Martinsville Speedway after an eventful day in the Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He got collected in Tyler Reddick's mid-race aggression and the cascading effect stooped him to a P32 finish. Even though Blaney emerged runner-up in the following Homestead-Miami race, it was insufficient for a Championship 4 spot.
Nonetheless, The #12 Ford driver had kept himself away from the controversies that brewed at Martinsville and clinched his third win of the season, guaranteeing his Phoenix entry and opening the door for a second consecutive title.
Joey Logano said that he knew Blaney's #12 would be the hardest car to defeat in the title fight. The former outlined that Blaney would've had the upper hand if the battle had come down to speed. The 2024 champion said (via Dirty Mo Media),
"I told Paul(Wolfe) and the guys that the #12 is going to be the hardest car to beat. I know that because Ryan is so freaking good, he's got so much speed...So I knew he was gonna be hard to beat, and I had to beat him on details this weekend. I had to beat him on whether it's the head game, the pressure, the details of restarts, I had to beat him on that stuff. Because if it's just on raw speed, we don't have the upper hand."
If Joey Logano had lost the fight to Blaney, the latter would've been the first driver since the introduction of the new playoff format in 2014 to win consecutive Cup Series titles.