Joey Logano is using the comments from the haters as motivation while pursuing his fourth Cup Series championship, to the point that he keeps a reminder of them in the No. 22 Team Penske hauler.
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"Do I have a little chip on my shoulder? Yes. That's a clear yes. So much that our little team slogan in our hauler, our scoreboard, is, '4 the Haters,'" Logano said after winning at Richmond Raceway on Saturday night. "That's where we're at. That's a little good extra motivation."
Back where we belong. pic.twitter.com/UIj9bNCXWI
— Team Penske (@Team_Penske) August 16, 2026
Logano, who now has 39 career Cup Series wins, is no stranger to criticism. He has heard it throughout the past few seasons while winning nearly two dozen races and multiple championships.
He knows that some NASCAR fans view his championship wins as "Mickey Mouse" titles because he took advantage of the elimination format multiple times and then turned in race-winning performances in the 2018, 2022, and 2024 finales.
"They're all legit," Logano said about his titles. "I don't care what the format is. Everyone knew the rules when it started."
The past format split the playoffs into four rounds, three of which had three races each. The first round featured 16 drivers. Once the third race ended, 12 drivers advanced to the second round. Three races later, eight drivers advanced to the third round.
These eight drivers then battled over three weeks for the four spots in the championship race. The driver with the best finish in this championship race won the title.
NASCAR has since ditched this format to use an updated format of The Chase. Once the regular season ends, the 16 drivers will battle over 10 weeks. The one who has the most points at the end will become the champion.
Logano never led the series in wins in any of his championship seasons. He only scored three wins in 2018 while Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch both won eight races. Yet, Logano won the title after he and his team turned in the performance they needed at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The same holds true for 2022 and 2024 when Logano won four races. Although he had some things go his way at pivotal moments. This includes Ross Chastain sparking a crash on a restart in the 2022 finale at Phoenix Raceway, one that collected series wins leader Chase Elliott.
NASCAR also disqualified Alex Bowman after the 2024 Charlotte Roval race. Bowman's No. 48 had failed post-race inspection, so he was relegated to a last-place finish in the elimination race.
This knocked him out of the playoffs and put Logano back in. Logano took advantage of the second chance and won his way into the Championship 4. He then captured his third title.
This capped off a season in which Logano had used fuel strategy to survive a five-overtime finish at Nashville and punch his ticket to the playoffs with a win. He then took advantage of strategy to score playoff wins at both Atlanta and Las Vegas.
"For someone to say this isn't real, it's a bunch of bull(expletive), in my opinion," Logano said at Phoenix Raceway after winning his third title.
"That's wrong. This is something that everyone knows the rules when the season starts. We figured out how to do it the best and figured out how to win. It's what our team has been able to do for the last three years."
Two years after making this statement to the media members at Phoenix Raceway, Logano's opinion has not changed.
He's still winning races, adding trophies to the collection, and moving up the NASCAR record books. He's continuing to deliver for team owner Roger Penske, the man who took a chance on him after he fell short of expectations at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Winning is what matters to Logano. He still does not care about the criticism of him or how he captured his championships.
In fact, he will continue to use the comments as motivation as he tries to match Jeff Gordon with his fourth Cup Series title.
"The Mickey Mouse ears look good on the trophies either way, and the check was pretty cool to go with it," Logano said.
