Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - EXCLUSIVE: Joey Logano interview following Cup Championship

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

On Episode 74 of ‘Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour,’ Kevin Harvick is joined by the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Champion, Joey Logano! Joey details what it was like to win his third championship, and breaks down how his team was able to perform so well down the stretch. Then, Joey reflects on his journey this season and explains how he was able to overcome a slow start to the year and finish strong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It was rough and it was not fun in any way. There's actually plenty of times where you said, you haven't fun yet? I go, ah, Gavin, have a good time up at the booth. Yeah, yeah. Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour, presented by NASCAR on Fox, and we get to wrap up this season with champ. Three-time Cup Series champion, Joey Legano, added himself to a list to make him the 10th driver

who has won three championships. So I can't wait to hear his perspective on how his season fell into place because there were a lot of pieces that had to fall in place. And I can't wait to hear Joey tell us about it. Well, Joey, you are now on a list of, you are already on a list of elite drivers. But now you're on a list of nine other guys that have won three championships. And to me, I know that you're a student of the sport. And I think you recognize just what's your, maybe it's too soon. but the position that you're in now as a three-time champion has to feel a little bit different

than the other times because of the elite list that you're on. Tell us how this one is a little bit different than the other two. Yeah, I mean, they're all a little bit different in their own way, but I feel like as you move along in your career and you get a little bit older, you start to understand what championships are really about. And the stats are cool. Don't be wrong. The stats are neat.

but the amount of people that are impacted with the championship and being able to celebrate with the people you understand because you worked with your team for a long time, when you celebrate with the people that you know really, really well, that 20 minutes is what it's about. Right? It doesn't, the stats, like, are they cool? And maybe someday it'll mean a lot more to me.

But right now, seeing everybody just celebrating as much as I was and that excited and when you know everybody, I've worked at Penske for 13 years now. So to see everybody that excited, that's really what it's about. Yeah. And I think for me, like when I got to the last, I don't know, really from the whole time I was at Stuart Haas racing, it was more about the, it was more about seeing the guys and gals happy winning the race than it was really even the trophy or what the stats were

because in the end it doesn't really matter, whether the stats are good or bad. If you win, that's all it matter. That's all that matters. So tell me about your weekend. I think as you look at the weekend, you guys had a couple more weeks. So let's start there. You had a couple more weeks to prepare than you did for other races. How did that change the preparation leading into this particular race?

Because it obviously affected the other two races from a performance side of things. But I think being able to sacrifice that for this race, obviously paid off yesterday. Yeah. When you look at our three championships that all came from the same recipe, It was when the first race of the round of eight take those two weeks to focus in on the championship race, nothing else matters. And when you do that,

it helps a lot when you get here. Yes, you pay the price at Martinsville and Miami where we really weren't much to speak of there, but it didn't matter, and we didn't care. Right now, I guess it's easy for us to say, well, you're not carrying the momentum. The momentum's already there. you're locked in. There's like there's a sense of confidence there already. So we felt solid about

the decisions we were making. We've been in that position two other times before, so we kind of knew how to handle that. There's a couple extra weeks of prep. I said it coming into this weekend. If you got locked in in Martinsville, you had two days before that car had to be loaded up and headed out. So you don't have much time to prep. Within those two days, you have media availability, you have a lot more things you have to do as a driver. It's very time-consuming that you're not able to spend that time with your team and really go through a lot of things. So not only is your tongue hanging out for two more weeks that you're exhausted

because you're trying to get in, but your team has a time to go through and massage the car, like the last little bit of things, right? The things that may not make a difference, but if you stack up a hundred of them, they do. Those things are really what made the difference for us, I believe, when we showed up here in Phoenix. So when you look at your weekend, was it smooth? Were you ever concerned?

Was it, I feel pretty good about it after practice? You qualified well, and that really kind of set the tone. But how was practice and everything leading up to that? I know that inspection was, you know, a little bit of an issue. And that, you know, I had questions the first pit stuff. I'm like, oh, man, is that stall going to be crap? And they just had a little fumble, but in the stall was fine. But how was practice and everything leading up to the race for you?

Yeah, I mean, there was practice was okay. I felt like we were the second best car after practice. I felt like the 12 was the best one, which I wasn't surprised about. You know, I honestly thought that the 12 was going to be the hardest car to beat coming here, which is a unique place to be because that's your teammate. And you see everything they're doing. but the facts aren't blaming gets around Phoenix really, really well. His average finish is ridiculous.

So, you know, I expected the 12 to be fast and I knew that we have to beat him on the details, right? We had to figure out the little things to beat them with. And, you know, qualifying on Saturday is a strength of ours, I believe. I think going out cold, not having practice right before it seems. fall into my hands a little bit. So we were able to take advantage of that and almost get a pole. But be in front of the rest of them. The downfall is we lost our pit selection.

There's a lot of time in that pit stall. There's a lot. We went to the Sim in those two weeks and spent four hours working on picking the right pit stall. So that's the amount of time you have to do these type of things. And pit stall 24 was not in our selections at all, I'm not even clubbed. So, and there's a second or so, almost a second and a half if you go to Stahl 1 to where we were. So you're at a pretty massive disadvantage there.

So that's, that was a lot to overcome. And then Graham or Jackman having a health issue. So, you know, trying to fix that in the middle of the race. I didn't know that was happening until I pitted. I was like, huh, something changed over here. Yeah. Did you ask him, did you ask him why there was a different? different team uniform running across the front of your car?

At that point, there was nothing I can do about it. I asked afterwards. That was one of the first questions I asked is what happened to Graham. But at the moment, you're in the race is, what am I going to do? So, yeah, at the time, you just got to stay on task, right? What is the job? What is the mission ahead? And you just got to keep focus on that.

So I look at that scenario and it says a lot about Team Penske because it wasn't just your car. It was the two car. it was the 21 car. They were moving all kinds of stuff. They were moving jacking in from each car around. And then you had to bring somebody who wasn't jacking at all to come in and fill the last slot. So, you know, I think when we talk about Team Penske and the things that you guys have been

able to do as a team, that moment said a lot about just who you guys, who you guys are as an organization because it was, I mean, it didn't, you'll go back and watch it. It didn't take long. I mean, they swapped all that stuff around. really, really quick. And there was obviously a plan in place. But talk about Roger Penske and just, you know, that's a tough scenario that you and Blaney were in yesterday to come down. And you guys raced hard.

Was there a conversation that had to happen before the race or do you guys just know what he expects? There was never a conversation. And I don't believe there had to be, right? Blaney and I have been teammates for 10 years now or whatever it's been. and we've, anytime we've had an issue, we handle ourselves. We'll talk it out. We'll figure it out. We knew going into this race that we're probably going to end up racing each other, right?

We've got the same stuff. We're probably going to be racing each other at some point. But the bottom line is one of us better win this thing, right? And when it comes down to your race is side by side, we both want it, right? I mean, the championship, you know, we want to win it for Roger, but there's some selfish motives behind it as well where you want to be the guy to do it. You want to be able to pull the car into victory lane.

You want the stat, right? You want the money, the trophy, all the things that come along with winning a championship. Second place doesn't get that, right? So it's you're put between a rock and a hard spot in a way because it's like, gosh, I got to do the right thing here. One of us has to win. So the last thing we want is to wreck, right?

And neither one of us wins. Or we race each other too hard. and the 24 or the 45 goes by the both of us and we look like two idiots out there and everyone at the race job saying you guys blew it for us, right? Like that's the last thing you want. So I think we both understood that

and even to the point when we were racing side by side and Coleman, my spotter was telling me where the 24 was and that we were still pulling away we were side by side but we were pulling away. Like, okay, all right, like we can continue racing each other and we're not jeopardizing a chance to win for either one of us. So being aware of that scenario was important for us all weekend. And to your point with the pit crew stuff, I think all that really is process, right?

Like that's what Team Penske is. There's a process for everything in the way we do stuff. The process, I think, of the pit crew, like, they all pit the same way. Everybody does things the same way. It's very processed out on the way we do things at Team Penske all the way through. So to interchange somebody, it's not like everyone has to learn each other that much. They jack the car the same way as the last guy jacks the car, right? It's done that way for reasons like that happened yesterday.

My most important question out of that whole quote was, have you heard from Coleman today? Is he alive? I saw him last night. He was doing good. Okay. And he just jumped on the plane with Canada. He's doing good.

Everything is he did. He's still alive. He's flying back with my wife and kids and Mr. Rick, everybody on the plane right now. Yeah, good. Well, I'm glad Coleman is still upright. And you talk about your kids. Tell me about the moments that you had yesterday. I saw you riding around after the race, just looking over there like, you know what?

This is a pretty proud dad moment right here. We're going to go to Victory Lane for not only the race win, but for the championship. Talk about your family and your kids. and just a toll that it takes on trying to balance all that. You seem to have a pretty good balance on life in general, but it's still not easy. It's still a lot to coordinate, and especially on a weekend like this,

but to be able to have those moments is something that you can't put a price on. And even just, funny story, I'm in Colorado, but Delana and Piper were at home watching a race. And Piper, she started crying after the race when she saw your kids. she's like, dad needs to race again. She's like, I want to celebrate like that again and ride in the car again. And I'm like, oh, I don't think that's going to happen. I think that ship has sailed pipe.

But it's that the kids, they get attached and comfortable and want to share those moments with you. So tell us how those moments as a dad were yesterday. Yeah, those are the moments that touch you the most. And honestly, I remember the first time you did it. I think you were the first one to do it. And you put Keelan in the right side of Michigan when you were. That's right. And I remember watching that and I thought, gosh, that is so cool.

And all I say, it's like, I hope I win a race someday with my kids there. Yeah. Because I want to do that. Like, I saw that and I was instantly jealous of like celebrating with your kid. Like that is the most badass thing. Like, I just think it's the coolest. And to your point, we don't do this alone. Like, it takes an army to do it, right?

Not just a team and the guys on the road. Yes, that's a big piece of it. but their spouses and their families are left at home while we are racing every weekend. And not only are they having to raise kids as a single parent sometimes because we're gone so much. We also, as much as we try to leave work at the racetrack, it's hard to sometimes. Sometimes you just come home mad and then you come home Monday after your meetings and you're still upset and it's hard to get over it. And these 10 weeks in the playoffs, the way this playoff system is now, the stress is, it's real. And as you care more, to your point earlier, as you care more about the people around you, you want to perform for them.

And that's more stress and more pressure. And it gets you. There's no doubt. Like, it will get you. And your family has to put up with that. So to be able to celebrate together, that's, I mean, when my wife came up with the, kids like that I broke down. That was just what it was.

And we talked about it coming into the racetrack on Wednesday night. We were driving over, you know, the river there, the bridge right when you look at the race track and the kids were in the backseat of the car and I said, you guys ready to get the flag after the race? Like, are you guys all going to go up there and get the flag? And they were all excited in the backseat. And so you just want to make that dream of reality as much as anything. That was the coolest part, you know, and we'll all get back home.

here in a little bit and get everybody else's families together. It would be a lot of celebrations throughout the off season. So what are you going to do all winter? You're going to just take a couple months off and not do anything? Tell NASCAR to go fly a kite. I'm not doing anything. What's the winner for Joey Legato look like now? Well, I'm looking over at them right now.

It doesn't look like that's going to be a case for me. You don't have that choice. No, I mean, honestly, I mean, you're a champion. and you understand that when you earn this, you become the disposement for a sport as a driver for the year. And that's not something that you should take lightly because I care about the sport, care about the people in it, I care about the longevity of it, I want it to go forever.

And I need to take this opportunity to maximize that, the best way possible. And so, you know, I don't have a plan quite yet. it's only the next morning right now. I'm trying to get up and rolling still, but I don't want to waste the opportunity, right? You don't know when the next one comes along if there is ever a next one. So you just want to maximize the opportunity that's ahead of us right now. And, yeah, the offseason got way busier than what it was going to be. We had a four-wheeler trip planned and a couple other trips.

I'm not sure we're going to get all of them anymore. It's going to be busy now. So when you go back and we talk about all the celebrations and everything that has gone with this year, when I go back and look at the beginning of the year, I'm like, man, that 22 car is in big trouble. When we started the season, it was not good. And I think back to Phoenix, I mean, it was a disaster at that first Phoenix race. Where did this season turn around? Because, you know, you get the win in the summer, not with the fastest car.

but that's just your M.O. You can win races and put yourself in a position and Paul will pull some strategy and you wind up beating faster cars. That's not anything new. I've seen that my whole career. And that's just something that you guys do. And which is what you did yesterday. You know, you had a great restart.

You didn't have the fastest car. Probably had the second fastest car, but you wound up in the front and, you know, the rest is history. So where in the season do you feel like it turned around? Where do you feel like, all right, we have a chance because it was a tough start. Yeah, it really was. And you're right. It was rough and it was not fun.

And anyway, there's actually plenty of times where you said, you haven't fun yet. I go, ha, ha, Kevin, have a good time up at the booth. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's good. That's for people that don't know, we can jab each other like that and be pretty honest with each other. So that's a good thing. Absolutely. It's fun that way. But I think the turning point for us, we had a tire test at North Wokesboro. And we took that test very seriously. We ran, I don't remember how many laps it was. It was 600-something laps or something like that, maybe more. We were getting

after it. And for a test and that many changes and going, like, it was a lot. And we learned a lot that day. And these days, you don't get practice to really swing at the car very often. You don't get test sessions, but that was the one this year. We maximize that, and a lot of things that we learned from that test, we carried over to even here at Phoenix, right? And Loudon, like, our short track package got pretty solid, right? Richmond, we could have won Richmond.

You know, there's a lot of, you know, Loudon, we were pretty good. I mean, I'm a mistake in wrecked, but we were pretty good there. So I felt solid about our short track program. A mile and a half were kind of where we were a little bit off. But to your point, too, with Paul, like, Paul just, he understands racing really well. He can make these amazing strategy calls and puts me in a spot to where it's not going to be easy to pull it off. But, you know, I feel like the details is where our strength is as a team, is being able to execute the little things to make up the difference of where we lack.

And, you know, our speed knob is very rarely the fastest car on a racetrack. It doesn't happen very often. Whatever that is, I mean, there's a million things that could be. But being able to control the details of the race is really where I feel like we stand out as a race team. And when you put the pressure on us and you come into a championship race like this and you give us a little extra time to do all those little details and prepped out a little bit sooner. That's when we become a very dangerous race team, a team that can really make a big, big splash when no one expects it.

And we've been able to do that for years now. And so I got a fantastic race team around me. I got a good group of some great racers, great people that, you know, we all have strengths and weaknesses, and we're open about it. We talk about them. And together, we become stronger. So you go first part of the season, and it's like, not very good.

You go to North Wilkesboro, kick their butt, really. And then you go and you're kind of hit or miss here and there. You get through the regular season, go to Victory Lane, get yourself into playoffs. And you go to the playoffs and win. And then you get eliminated. And then you're kicked out of the playoffs. And all of a sudden, I would assume you got the call on the way home. and it was, hey, we're back in this thing.

And now you're sitting here as the champion. There has to be something that just says, hey, this was Joey Lugano's year from the beginning. And you guys just kept plugging along. And you had all these odd moments of winning races that you shouldn't win and cars not running good and you fix all that. And then you get eliminated back in the playoffs. And now you're sitting here as a champ.

I guess, I guess, I guess, I guess. what is that like for the relationship between you and Paul? Because, you know, he's a very mild mannered. Like when I watch him, I'm like, man, he, does he say 10 words in the meetings? But obviously, obviously he does. So who's motivating who in this particular season of all the ups and downs? Is it you motivating him or is it him motivating you? Who is it?

I don't really not answer that. because I think, you know, Paul is very mild-mannered. He's not very chatty, right? Like, he's not going to talk about things. He's only going to talk about the meaningful things. He's only going to speak up when he's 100% certain about something. But he's a thinker. Like, the wheels are going up there.

Like, there's smoke coming out of his ears. There's a lot of things going on. But he's going to be certain before he says something. And I'm more of a think. out loud kind of guy. Like, you're going to know where I'm at all the time, which I think it helps us, right? Because it helps kind of get the conversation going. We're polar opposites when it comes to that. I'll talk a lot, you didn't talk much, together. It kind of an eating thing. It kind of works. Our engineers, you know, we sit in a meeting together. And yeah, there's times that we sit in there

for five minutes and no one says it worked. That happens a lot. We're just looking at stuff like, all right, what are we doing here? But that's, it's just how, it's the process of how we do it. It's, it's worked. Paul, he's, he's, he's a lot like Rodney in ways, you know, that, you know, he's just, sometimes you're like, what's going on, but then he's, he figures it out. He's got it going on in there. And he's an old school racer where he does a good job at listening to Sim and, and,

and kind of the new wave of setting up race cars, but does an amazing job at bringing it back to reality a lot of times to say, okay, I get that, but there's this, right? And he's a great job at challenging all of us to become better, right? He lets us do our job, but he challenges us to be better. That's all you want in a leader. That's the most important pieces of it. So you go in, so who's the leader?

You or Paul? Like, who's the, I got to know who the, who's the motivator here? because after the race, and this is the reason that I bring this up, because after the race, and I don't know how many people pick this up, but you said, I may not be the best driver, but I have the best team. And when I look around the garage and I look at all these cars that run really fast, you'll have a car and a driver and a team that run fast one week over here, and then all of a sudden they disappear for six months and they don't ever show back up. And then the next season they'll show up here and there.

that's not the case with you guys. And I think it's, it's, there's, there's something to that puzzle. And, and you, you mentioned Rodney. And I, I think that the, you know, that quiet belief in each other comes from something, right? Like, it's, it's, it's from success and it's, it's from people and it's, it's from moments and, and things like that. And, and I look at your teammate with Blaney. I mean, every time they go through those moments, they're getting, they're getting more and more experience of saying, I can do this. But there's there when when Paul came on board there has to be there had to be some bumps in the road, but there has to be there has to be these these building blocks that lead to what it is today because now you do you guys don't even you don't even look like you have to

talk to each other. And I think what when you talk about your team and the things that that you said after the race and not being the best driver, you know that you know that you're going to be in position. And and I think how many years has Paul been with you now? What's it down? That's 20. So four years. So, I mean, four years. And, you know, so that's, that's a, that's a bunch of races. And I think that, you know, for Rodney and I went through, I went through moments where I'd knock the dash out trying to get him wound up or throw something. And none of those things ever works. So what pushes, what pushes Paul's button, I guess, is what I'm saying to get you. I don't think you have to. I got to said, I don't. I don't. I mean, he's, he's pretty mild all the way through. And I just think, we take the time to sit and talk about it, right? Like, we're going to figure it out, and he's going to point out where he feels like I'm off, and vice versa.

Like, I mean, that's okay, right? Like, I understand that there's some things that I am not the best at, right? And I try to be better at it, but there's some things that don't fit my wheelhouse, right? There's some things that just don't come natural as a driver to me. That's why you got to understand what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are. And as a team, we've got to be able to support each other in those areas. is, right? Like, just sometimes say, hey, I don't like running the wall that much. Not really my thing, but sometimes I got to do it and I'm going to figure it out, but you got to work with me here for a minute, you know? Right. You know, I guess if you're saying who's the motivator in a team, it's probably Coleman of it, right? I don't know if, yeah. I give, no. I'm worried.

Now, there's really, honestly, there's no one that knows me better than Coleman, remember my wife, but outside of that, he knows the way I tick. So as far as moating me during the race, there's definitely that, you know, Paul and Coleman communicate a lot throughout the race.

So a lot of that communication that you don't hear from Paul is actually just going up to Coleman and then back down to me. So, you know, those lines of communications are open. There's a lot of things going on. You just don't hear a lot of it over the radio because it's going through the roof. But, yeah, I just think that, yeah, we're just a solid team.

We're well-rounded. And like you said, as long as we're open with each other, it's good, right? It's not always easy. It's not always fun. More times than not, it's not fun. We don't do this for fun. We don't have fun or something else. We do this for that moment, you know, after the race.

That's the 20 minutes of victory. winning a championship. That's the only reason why we do it. That's like the number one reason. So for those of you that that don't know, Coleman Presley is Joey Lagano spotter. And he is a, well, I'm just going to categorize him as a character. But he is, he is a piece of work as a human being. And, you know, he's very good at, he's very good at what he does, though. As goofy as I can, I can make him sound, he is very, very good at what he does and explaining things. And, you know, I think it's just that comment to me about your team, there's a lot of people that that need to take that comment and work on their own teams.

So I'm going to have to, I'm going to put you in this political position here for a minute because when I look back at, when I look back at Martinsville, when I look back at Martinsville, there are a lot of things that that happened. I've sat in manufacturer meetings. You've sat in manufacturer meetings. we've all been in a position to, you know, to be able to talk about, you know, maybe not to the extent of what happened at Martinsville. But how does that all change the sport? And, you know, I think NASCAR took a good stance on the, on the Christopher Bell piece of it with the wall riding. We all know where all the drivers stood on that. I think that was an easy call. But what comes out of this? And the only reason, the biggest reason that I ask you this is because I view you as, as one of the leaders in that garage. And I think that your opinion matters.

And so I'm curious as to how you think that that changes the outcome of what we do going forward and the pressure that is put on every team from the manufacturer and their teams. What comes out of that whole Martinsville debacle? Well, first off, I think NASCAR did the right thing by doing something. they had to. If you let that go, it will continue to grow. It'll be the next thing and the next thing

and it'll just, you know, going into Phoenix the next weekend after something like that, like, geez, like we're going to be, it's going to be everybody just saying the hell with their race and they're going to be blocking everybody. And so NASCAR is putting a spot where they have to do something. Now, it gets tricky for NASCAR, I believe, because how do you prove it?

Right? And to your point, the 20, pretty easy to see. He rode the wall. Can't do that. That's a black and white rule. All right. Easy call. The other's easy call because you heard them talking on the radio. Right. And that communication over the radio, pretty obvious.

If there wasn't that communication on the radio, how do you make that call? Right. That gets pretty tough. Because did they slow down? obvious to the naked eye what was going on, even if there was nothing ever said. Like, I saw it happen in front of me. I'm like, geez, this guy's, right? Like, I know it. If they didn't say it on the radio, are they going to make that call, though? I don't know. But we have to do something

unless we're going to look like F1. And that ain't what we are. That's not what we're going to be. So we have to do something. But what makes that stop? What makes them just have the meetings beforehand, like to your point, and they do it anyways. We got unloaded for practice. The one is racing the dog crap out of the 12 in practice. The 77 unloads backs up to me. A straightway had a straightaway gap ahead of me, backed up right in front of me and ran right there

and just put dirty arrow and killed my run in practice. You know, like so we're doing this in practice. The week after you just got dinged for this. Right. So, okay, like you see how the weekend's going to go. Like, you understand, okay, they're not backing off on it. They're just not going to talk about it. It's a tricky place for NASCAR to be, and I don't know exactly the answer.

They did threaten us before the race that if anyone manipulates the race somehow, you're not racing in the Daytona 500 next year. Is that a threat? Is that real? We'll know if something happened. I didn't see anything happened yesterday, but, Yeah, it's just a, this playoff system is a big piece of it. And who do you answer to?

That's the question you have to ask. Who do you answer to? Whoever signed your paycheck is who you answer to. Right. And if Chevy or Ford or Toyota are stroking these big checks and they say, hey, it's very important for have our car into championship four, and we fund a lot of your stuff, you better do the right thing. What do you do?

You're backed up against the wall. And then backs NASCAR up against the wall. It's just a, I don't know how to fix it. Yeah. Well, I agree with you. I think that doing something was a good start. I think that, you know, I've been on the other side of that too. And I've been on both sides to that, you know, as far as trying to, trying to help and trying not to help.

And so it's a tough spot. When you look at, you talk about the playoffs. And it seems like with the last 10 races that you can really, does it motivate you? more the last 10 races just because it just seems like all of a sudden you'd flip this switch and you go into this this last 10 races and then I'll ask you the other question but I it just seems like you have this different mindset when you go into these these last 10 10 that you is it different than the first 26 for you personally it ends up being that way yeah and I don't feel like I do anything different but I just think like we thrive under the pressure

Like, we love it. I love it. Part of, like, we try to find ways to add pressure to the scenario, right? Like, after qualifying, I go into the media center, I start adding more pressure to myself by saying things, right? Like, I do that for multiple reasons, but for one, it puts more pressure on me, and that's, I need that. It's not, it doesn't make it more comfortable, but it just, I don't know,

something lights up and it makes things work. So, yeah, I mean, you know how it is. The race starts before it gets to the racetrack, and the race continues throughout the whole weekend on and off the racetrack. But, yeah, those are moments that just in the playoffs. It just seems to fit. I don't know. Majority of our wins have happened in the playoffs,

at least percentage-wise, there's way less playoff races than their regular season races. But there's a lot more playoff wins than those 10 races than we do in the other 26. there's got to be a reason for it, but it seems like the human element has got to be a big piece of it. So you look at the first 26, and we've had a lot of conversation on this show as to what the right thing to do is for the regular season champion. Does the regular season need to be weighted more in your opinion as far as what that regular season champion gets? or do you think that the format is pretty good in general, going from 26 and bonus points to 10 and win and you're in?

I think it's fine. I think it's good. And I know I'm the minority of this, and they're probably saying, too, you just won the championship and you didn't have the best regular season, of course, you're on the side. I get it. But think about it from other sports perspectives, right?

If you're in the NFL, you can win every single undefeated into the playoffs, It's going to help you get seated, but you can still lose the first game and you're out. Right. So does that mean if you win the regular season, you should just be locked to race for a championship? I don't think so. Should you get an advantage? Yes, you should.

And there's a large advantage there. Overcoming 15 points and the amount of wins that most likely the regular season champion has. To overcome that in three races, it's really hard to do. Right? In our position, we came in with, you know,

virtually not many, you know, not many points. Yeah. We don't have a mulligan. They have a, they can, especially in the first two rounds,

they can have a bad race and then just be equal to me. Right? So they earned an amazing advantage. And it is there. After that, like, I mean,

that's just the way the rules are. We all know what they are going into the season. I think the playoffs had a lot of storylines. I think there's a lot of drama. It's exciting. I said it last night in the media center. I watched the Xfinity

stuff or the truck stuff and I'm like, this is great. The storyline of the cutoff line and those races within the race, you don't have that in the regular season. You wouldn't have that if it was 10 races like the old chase was. Right. You don't have those

moments. You don't have to do or die. I got to make it happen. You're telling me that's not awesome? Like, I love it. Like, as a race fan, like, take me out of it as a driver. As a fan watching the Xfinity in the truck series, I freaking love it. So last couple things. And, you know, I think for me, I always, I feel like I'm somewhat similar to you. I always had to find things to motivate myself and try to make things fresh and excited. So you've won three championships, boatload of races. What is the, like, what do you want to do next? I know the easy answer is to say, I just want to win more championships and more races.

But is there anything out there? Do you ever want to have anything invested in a team? Do you ever want to have a, you know, truck team or a late model team? Is there any of that stuff that intrigues you? Or do you like business outside of the car? And I think it's easier, the more you, accomplish to start talking about that stuff because you just you feel like you can do that stuff anyway. Is there anything out there that is, hey, I need, I'm, I would be interested in

doing this over the next 10 years because you still have a long ways to go, bud. Yeah, I do have a long ways to go. But I mean, it is real. Retirement's a real thing, right? And afterlife of this sport is something that will hit me at some point. That's why I think there's a few things to this. That's why I think your family is so important because when we're done with this sport, within three years you're forgotten about, maybe even quicker. I think, like, I think if you don't have people with you that you love and you did this with and you have those memories, that's what you got at the end of the day.

And the sport will go on. And I hope it goes on without me. Like, it needs to go on without me. But it's kind of sad if this is all you have. Like if this is all you are is NASCAR racing and that's gone, it's lonely, quick, I believe. I don't know that, but I assume that's what it's going to be like. So I think doing other things is important, right? Having other purposes, right, of what that is, if it's being a dad, if it's being a business owner of some sort.

you know, we got the production company that I'm a part of. I like playing in some real estate stuff. I like trying to prove to myself that I'm not just the one trick pony. I feel like I hit the cheat code in life being a professional athlete. You know, like I didn't make it in business. You know, I'm like a race car driver. I'm driving freaking circles all day long. Like, that's the cheat code for sure.

So I like to prove that I can do more than one thing. and I think I'll always have to have a job after racing. What that is, I don't know, right? Is it in a race team, maybe? Is it in NASCAR? Maybe. Is it in TV? Maybe.

Is it something completely out of the sport? I don't know. It's kind of one step at a time. I know I'm doing this for a few years for sure. As long as Roger wants me in the contract holds up. I think we're, you know, we continue going. But at some point, I will be fairly young in the world, I mean, 40-something, right? And you've got a long ways to live.

So I'm going to talk to you, Kevin. I'm going to say, what do I do? I can tell you that you, as busy as you are, it's fun to stay busy, but it's really fun to stay busy with no pressure. So I like, I tell people all the time, I retire from racing, not working. like to stay busy and I still it still allows me to to go do things with my kids and being home on Sunday is really weird I can I can definitely vouch for that that is a that is a really weird scenario but it has gotten easier as as the as the year has gone on but I I like the people I like being around the racing community they're my people so you'll

figure that out. But, well, good luck with your adventure of PR as you go through the next little bit. I'm just glad that they actually have you doing something, Joey. That's an improvement from the last championship. So that's a good thing. And congratulations on winning your third championship. You just went out there and took it. You know, like I said earlier, you didn't, you didn't have the fast car. And in your words, you had the best team. So congratulations to you and everybody on that 22 team. And I guess we'll see you at the Daytona 500, as weird as that is to say. I'll see you there probably before then, but I'll see you then. All right, man. Thanks, Kevin. Thank you.

Well, I want to thank Joey for taking the time today to give us a recap of how we wound up being the champ. But we're not done. We have another show. We have one more show, an award show that you guys will be able to vote with. what we as host think is the key moments in each category. So pay attention to YouTube and social media and get involved in what we're doing for the award show to end the year. So remember, one more show, so pay attention.