‘I don't see a big difference,’ Dale Earnhardt Jr. weighs in on Joey Logano’s nightmare season

Team Penske veteran Joey Logano is officially staring down a nightmare scenario after a chaotic and highly destructive pit road collision at Texas Motor Speedway relegated him to a dismal 37th-place finish, pushing the multi-time champion completely out of the provisional playoff picture.

The bizarre sequence of events in Fort Worth couldn’t have arrived at a worse moment for the driver of the No. 22 Ford. Already battling to find consistent speed this year, Logano was running inside the top 15 when William Byron spun out directly in front of him on the track.

While Logano executed a miraculous evasive maneuver to avoid a high-speed catastrophe, his luck immediately evaporated under the yellow flag. Jammed up during a four-tire pit stop sequence, Logano slammed into the back of Cole Custer’s decelerating machine, ripping the entire left-front fender off the Penske Ford and snapping the wheel. It was a brutal, abrupt end to a day the team desperately needed to go smoothly.

Speaking on a recent episode of the Dirty Mo Media podcast, NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. pointed to the crushing reality of Logano’s situation, noting that the No. 22 team’s current performance isn’t entirely new, but the consequences certainly are. According to Dale, the revised postseason format has completely removed the safety net that Logano and his crew have relied on in the past to mask their mid-season slumps.

1. A System That Demands Consistency

“I went back and looked at Joey Logano and where he was in points in the last four seasons,” Dale explained on the podcast, dissecting the true root of Penske’s current crisis. “In 2022, at this point in the season, he was 9th in points. In 2023 and 2024, he was 13th in points. And last season at this point in the season, he was 9th. I don’t see a big difference in how Joey is running today versus over the last handful of years at this point in the year. The #22 is what the #22 is at this point. They would even agree that they aren’t running well, haven’t been running well for the last five years in this stretch of the season.”

2. The Cold Hard Numbers

The statistics through the first 11 races of the season paint a bleak picture for the reigning Texas winner. Following the disastrous 37th-place finish, Logano now finds himself mired in 17th place in the regular-season standings. He is officially on the outside looking in, sitting seven critical markers behind Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe for the final transfer spot into the 16-man playoff field. Worse yet, the underlying performance metrics do not suggest a sudden turnaround is imminent. Logano has managed just three top-10 finishes so far this year. He has not led more than three laps in a single Cup Series event since the race at Phoenix Raceway back in March. For a team with a championship pedigree, these numbers are staggering. The lack of raw speed is palpable, and the unforced errors are the hallmarks of a team pressing too hard to make up for a lack of pace. Logano admitted as much outside the infield care center in Texas. Visibly frustrated after the pit road incident with Custer, he recounted the chaos of the pit cycle, where everyone was diving for two tires. When the cars ahead of him abruptly checked up, Logano had nowhere to go, destroying his car in the accordion effect. “It’s been a tough year, to say the least,” Logano confessed to reporters. He added that the team actually ran at a decent pace during the race despite a poor qualifying effort, which only made the early exit sting that much more.

3. A Glaring Internal Contrast

To fully grasp the magnitude of Logano’s struggles, one only needs to look across the Team Penske shop floor. While the No. 22 crew is fighting for its playoff life, Logano’s teammates are thriving under the new rules package. Ryan Blaney currently sits in an impressive fourth in the overall points standings, maximizing his days even when dealing with well-documented struggles on pit road. Even Austin Cindric, often viewed as the third wheel in the Penske hierarchy, is currently 15th in points, comfortably ahead of his veteran teammate. This internal disparity eliminates the excuse of organizational equipment issues. The speed is clearly there within the Ford camp, but the No. 22 team is failing to execute week in and week out. When mid-pack runners like Daniel Suarez and Ryan Preece are currently sitting in much safer positions to make the postseason, the pressure on Logano’s crew chief, Paul Wolfe, is mounting exponentially with each passing weekend. The path to redemption for Joey Logano is only going to get steeper from here. The schedule over the next few months is unforgiving, featuring a gauntlet of intermediate tracks and highly unpredictable road courses. With road racing aces like Shane van Gisbergen lurking further back in the standings and fully capable of stealing a victory to upend the playoff bubble, Logano cannot afford any more slip-ups. If Dale is right, the No. 22 team simply has to fundamentally change its DNA. They can no longer wait for the fall to turn up the intensity. They need to start grinding out stage points, securing top-five finishes, and avoiding the catastrophic mistakes that plagued them in Texas. What comes next is a gut check for one of the most accomplished drivers of his generation. Logano and Team Penske are heading into the upcoming stretch of the schedule with their backs firmly against the wall. The new playoff format was designed specifically to punish inconsistency and reward sustained excellence. Right now, Logano is finding out the hard way that past championships offer zero protection from the brutal realities of the modern NASCAR rulebook. The No. 22 team must adapt immediately, or they will spend the autumn watching the championship battle from the garage.