Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Victory Lap: Joey Logano

Episode Date: July 22, 2026

Joey Logano is back on Happy Hour after winning his 1st race of 2026! Logano led the most laps in his career (323) in a single race and snapped his 45-race winless streak. The win moved the 3x NASCAR Cup Series Champion into The Chase field. Will this win turn his season around? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Thanks, Beth 365. Must be 19 or older Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please go to connectsuntario.c.com. This weekend we're going to Indy. I bring my chapstick every year just to be ready, but I haven't had the moment yet. They see the pictures around the house and they're like, huh, how does that happen?

I told you like that win. Welcome him in to Kevin Harvick's happy hour victory lap. I'm Caleb-Smith. And we are so excited to welcome the North Wilkesboro winner, Joey Lagano, to the program. Joey, great to see you. And we actually got to interview you a couple of weeks ago. And you were very honest about kind of the ups and downs, obviously, of the year so far. But now that you've crossed over into the wind column, how is the whole program rejuvenated?

A lot more ups all of a sudden. Just a, I always NASCAR racing for you, right? Like one week you're down and next week you're up. And you just got a ride up as long as you possibly can. And it's nice to have a really, really fast Mustang this weekend that had so much speed. been we're able to execute a solid race on top of that. You know, the last thing you want is have a car that fast and not win.

So everything worked out just perfectly and got a bunch of points is which we needed and still need a bunch more. So it's a, it's a good start. And hopefully, like I said, we keep riding that momentum for a while. You were talking about having a dominant car. And if you don't win, how that makes you feel. I talked to your teammate Ryan Blaney last week at Echo Park. I'm like, man, if you have a car that good and you don't get it done, like, how does

How do you handle that? Like, if you would have not got it done, how hard would you have been kicking yourself? I don't even like thinking about that. It's horrible. I've been there. It's like, oh, it feels like just a wasted opportunity. To get a car that good is rare, right? It's special.

And you have to make sure you win when you get those ones. And I've been at both ends of it before. And you're running that last long run. and you know you have control of the race, but Denny's right there, and you're just waiting for, like, a caution to come out with 20 to go, and it splits the field up on whether you need to do two tires or four tires or stay out,

which happened in the All-Star race at Wolofsport last year, and we lost the race because of it. So, like, you're just waiting for something like that to happen, and we're like, gosh, it's going to split the strategy, everyone's going to do the opposite of you, and that's just how the race is going to play out. But it stayed green, we raced it to the end. It was, thank God.

It worked out again. Something worked. here. Denny Hamlin called your performance wildly impressive, which it certainly was. And we just saw that footage there of you obviously doing burnout with your son. What was that moment like? You brought him in the car celebrating with everybody and your family. That was fun. You know, years ago, Kevin, I think, might have been the first one to do it. And I remember in Michigan and Keelan come running out. And I thought, and at the time, Hudson was just a baby. And I thought, man, that'd be so cool to do that one day, like to take your son for a ride in the race car.

That would be so cool. And I've had the opportunity to do that in Phoenix. We won the championship. And so when I was doing the burnout, I came around the backstretch, and I've seen his little head sticking out of the fence. I was like, oh, there's honey. I spun it around and got him after Pops figured out how to get the window out and all that. That was funny, too.

Once we got all that figured out, I got him in there, and I thought, we're going to light them up. I mean, I'm not going to chuck around either. I mean, hang on, bud, we're going to go. And so we lit him back up and get a burnout together. And he loved it. I loved it, too. It was a lot of fun.

I was standing right there, Caitlin, when he came around, and we had the camera on Tom. And when Tom got the window in, Joey was so hard in the throttle that I thought he was going to run over his own dad. Overcloud that can be a pit stop. I saw him. Like, I'm out of here. Yeah, I got to go. Got to go. Joey, you were talking about it

towards the end of this race. You know, Danny Hamlin, Danny's basically stalking you. Like, he didn't really let you get any type of lead. But then I was watching something interesting happened. The 35 ends up in front of you and picks up a couple tenths of speed.

And it kind of gave you a hard time there. When you're in those moments and you know that you're racing with maybe someone's teammate or OEM teammate, the nuance to how you get around that situation, what is going through? mind in that in that moment. Well, I've seen it coming because he came off a pit road with like 20 lap and you were

tires. So we were already out there for 20 laps. He comes out of pit road. And so he's faster than us. Goes by me. And I was like, when he passed me, I was like, that's when I really cannot afford to let go here. And I made it a little hard on him to get by for that reason.

I thought, gosh, the end of the race, I think I'm going to be faster in him. And I'm going to get stuck. because his teammate is directly behind me. What is a teammate? The guy that pays the bills. Probably even more than a teammate, right? Is there behind me racing for the win? I'm like, gosh, that's going to be a tough one.

And it happened exactly the way I thought it would, right? He got out there, and then we started catching him at the end of the race, and I caught him. And then he started to just dogging me everywhere I went. Like, he was racing me like he was racing for the win. And I was like, oh, man. And then he reeled me all the way in. I'm like, you've got to be kidding me.

I mean, it's exactly what I thought was going to happen. I had to use a lot of tire to get around them. Like, I didn't want to use as much tires I did. Eventually, I was able to do that. And then somehow we'll get enough gap again after that. But I thought I was going to use up too much trying to get there. But eventually, I was like, I have to get around them. Like, I don't have an option.

I can't waste any time. Danny was catching me a couple tenths a lap at that moment. I tried out the new bumper even to try to get around. that didn't even work. He was going so slow and, like, trying to make sure that he was right in front of me, and didn't even move him. I was like, oh, jeez, he's not even on the edge of his car right now.

So I had to just try to figure something out and eventually get to his outside. But that's just, I mean, that's racing, right? Like, I mean, he was doing his part. It's fine. You know, I mean, we've all been putting spots before. And, you know, he's in one of those spots that, you know, if he just let me go, I don't know what the country.

conversation like for him is on Monday, you know, I don't know, but he did his part, you know. But then he was the same thing. Riley did his part to try to help his boss win the race. Helvet teammate. Yeah, I'm glad we got clarification on that. Yeah, so we're curious about that yesterday. So you also talked to us a couple weeks about like your physical fitness and being outside a lot this time of the year because of the heat.

We saw a lot of drivers kind of seemed like they were struggling a bit when they got out of their car Sunday night. How are you physically feeling afterwards? It was really freaking hot. If I'm being hot, it was, it was a long run. That track, like, it's a pretty physical race track. I know, like, short tracks are way more physical than the mile and a half. He just don't have a straightaway. And it's an intense, like, lap because you're just in the corners a long time.

But then also you're getting dog the whole time. You're in traffic the whole time. Like, you're mentally, you know, trying to get everything in, in order and execute perfectly while the pressure is on. So that kind of raises your heart rate as well. And it's hot. Like, I mean, it is smoking inside the car. So, yeah, even when I got out of the car, it was two hours later in Victor Lath.

I can't stop sweating. You know, like, it's easy to get dehydrated. And I got to the point I was a little dehydrated and your body just aches the next day and everything's sore. But I'm back now. I'm back in the game. He's back. ready to go. You know, something that happened at the end of the race.

You're about in victory lane. And the guy that finished second, Denny Hammond reaches over the pit wall and you guys have a Dap-up moment. And not that I'm surprised, but I think a lot of people were. You know, you guys have an interesting relationship and rivalry on track.

But I thought that was really cool and interesting for everyone to see. Yeah, I think, You know, Denny and I, you know, is different of humans that we are. Like, we're very different on the way we do a lot of things. There's a mutual respect, I think, for what we do on the racetrack. And also what we do off the racetrack. You know, what he's done to grow his business and his race team is pretty amazing to me.

And then also, I think we both have an interest of growing our sport. Like, I think in the same way I want to leave our sport in better shape than it was when I got here or at least try to. I don't know if I can do that, but I'm going to try. He has that same attitude where he is trying to improve our sport. And I think with all that and combined with each other, like we have some things in common and we have a mutual respect for each other. And when we can duke it out like that at the end, it was pretty fun, right? I mean, a couple of the veterans of the sport at this point, right? Going back and back and forth right there was pretty fun to do.

The tweet, Caitlin, was the best. What's that? The tweet, the tweet from Denny. That's just short track racing. That is a quote that will live for. Is that really how I say it, though? You know, like, that really sound like that. Every time you say freaking, every time you say freaking, I kind of laugh a little bit.

A little bit, yeah. Both you and Denny, obviously, fierce competitors, but I think about your whole team. You know, Paul Wolf. you you guys just seem to be able to find another gear in these like clutch high pressure moments. How are you guys able to do that always? I mean, I think it's just an experience, right? And that's kind of where our bread and butter has been for years is, you know, when the playoffs came around, the pressure was on and our team just stays pretty even keeled

and just kind of handles it really well. And right now the pressure is on us, right? We got to get one into the chase and two way ahead of where we are in points right now to have a shot at learning this thing. So, you know, with the pressure is on us, it's fine. That's good. It usually gets the most of us. Obviously, it's been tough this year, right?

But we're at that point of the year where hopefully we can get some things rolling. We got some good tracks. We get some momentum built up. And you have a few more great weekends. You can be right back in this thing. So we are at a point where we still can recover. It's hard to do, but we can still get there. So we keep our foot in the ass and keep going.

You talk about pressure. this weekend we're going to Indy, the boss's house, R.P.'s place. Does that bring any more pressure? I mean, it's nice to have a win in the bank now going into Indy, but I know the whole company really wants to do well this weekend. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Indy's special no matter what team you drive for and whatever driver you are.

Like, Indy is one of them that you always dream of winning at. when your boss owns the race track, multiply that by like 10. You just want to win this one so bad. And I look at last year, and I think we were in position to win that race as we came off pit road right in front of Bubba. We were in a good spot.

And we had a flat tire. And he went on to win the race. And it's just like, ah, it's just so close. It's been the one that's been haunting me for years. That I just dream of the moment of kissing the bricks, you know? So I bring my chapstick every year just to be ready, but I haven't had the moment yet. You've had some runner-up finishes there.

And so he mentioned the brickyard. And when you look at the next stretch of races, we only have five to go before the postseason. How do you feel like these tracks line up for Team 22? There's some great tracks ahead of us. You know, Indy, for one, I feel pretty good about Iowa, I feel okay about. But then when you think about Richmond and Loudon, those tracks coming up are really exciting. So, you know, I feel like obviously North Worksboro is one of our best race tracks. We capitalized on that.

Richmond, I feel like, is a track we can be equally as good at and loud, and we've been really good at the last couple of years as well. So, you know, I look forward to those tracks the most, but I also think of the other ones and I think we can win at those ones as well. Joy, I keep telling it. I told everybody a few weeks ago, I said, you know who's hanging around? It's the 22. Don't let them hang around.

If you got them down, you better keep them down because if they get, you know, get a little momentum. It's going to be a bulldog fight all the way to the end. That's right. It would be a hell of a comeback story at this point if we're able to pull this off. But there's definitely a chance, you know. And if we can, like I said, do what we've been doing the last few weeks where we've been making some progress.

We're scoring points again. We're getting stage points. We're finishing in the top 10. Now we're, you know, we see a win here, right? Like all of a sudden some consistency starts building. We can start getting back to where we belong and where we know to be how to do. how to be there. But it just, it's taken a long time.

And the recovery factor, this year is more challenging than it's been in the past with this, you know, new chase format. So, or the old chase format, I should say. So this is, we can get there. The road's going to be bumpy. It's going to be tough. But we can get there. So when you were with us a few weeks ago, we talked about the fact that you now have

foster children and that they hadn't had a chance to see you win yet. Now they have. So what was their reaction when, I don't know if they were with you at the track or if they were at home. but what did they say? Like, dad's a winner. Now, when they were at home with my wife and Hudson kind of last minute rode up with my dad, so he got to go up there.

But there was a lot of regrets on Monday morning when I got home. They were like, oh, we should have went. Dang it. They don't know that I can win. They haven't seen that yet. We're since we become foster parents. It's been a little rough this year, you know. So they don't think they've seen the pictures around.

the house and they're like, huh, how's that happen? I told you I could win. What was that like? Like that, once you get to a certain age, you just not win anymore? How's it work? What's the deal? Yeah.

So I told them, I told them before I left Sunday morning and left the house. I said, I got a chance today. It's looking pretty good. That's awesome. Well, I'm sure they'll be with you for a win soon. And we're very happy for you. Congratulations. Again, Joey on the victory at Northville'sborough.

It was awesome to see that. We're wishing you the best of luck, as we continue on with the regular season. All right. Thank you, again, very much. We'll see you soon. Good luck, chap.