CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Joey Logano had a massive grin on his face as he sat under the bright lights inside the Charlotte Convention Center. This is exactly where he wanted to be after closing out the regular season.
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Sure, answering questions from media members may not have been high on his list of enjoyable moments, but it represented something bigger. He was about to embark on a pressure-filled stretch of the season, and he couldn't wait.
"It's 10 weeks of hell. I heard Jimmie Johnson say that one time and it's pretty true. It's a grueling 10 weeks, but it's a pretty cool trophy at the end of it," Logano said with a laugh during Chase Media Day.
The pressure of the 10 weeks is something that many drivers mentioned on Wednesday. The postseason is always stressful, but this year's format introduces even more challenges.
No longer can they recover from a bad race by winning and automatically locking up a spot in the next round. Gone are the points resets after every three races.
Now, these drivers have to kick off the Chase at Darlington Raceway and just go on a run. They have to be perfect, or as close as possible, in order to contend for the championship.
Each driver knows they must face this pressure and push through to achieve success. That became a common talking point on Wednesday.
Yet, Logano took a different approach with his answer. He just spoke about how he welcomes this pressure because it means he's actually achieving something, even if it makes him seem like a little bit of a psychopath.
#NASCAR - The format changes, but Joey Logano doesn't. He's just excited to face this pressure.
And yes, he admits that he's a little bit of a psychopath. pic.twitter.com/QImTF8OUAb— John Newby (@JohnNewby_) September 2, 2026
"If it's easy to do, you're probably not accomplishing anything that matters in life - most likely," Logano said. "The hard things are the things that move the needle in your life. It could be something to do with your job. It could be with your family. It could be having kids. It could be whatever. All of those things are hard to do, but they move the needle one way or another.
"I've yet to have pressure sitting on a couch watching a TV show, and I don't want to do that personally. I don't want to sit down on a couch and watch a TV show. I hate it. I don't ever want to do that because then what am I doing with my life?
"I don't know if that's a psychopath or not. It sounds like it a little bit (laughs), but I want to do something and I have the platform to make a big move here right now and who knows how many more opportunities I have at it, so, yeah, all of those are real pressure moments because maybe I won't have another shot at it."
As the ninth seed, Logano doesn't have the easiest path to a fourth championship. He enters Darlington weekend 65 points behind No. 1 seed Denny Hamlin, and he knows that Team Penske still has gains to make on the intermediate tracks.
But unlike Han Solo, Logano has no problem with you telling him the odds against him. In fact, he prefers to know that people doubt his ability to make a run during the final 10 races of the season and win another championship.
"That's a reputation that we've earned over the years is that, unfortunately, during the regular season we seem to just be OK, and then it gets to game time and the 22 starts to show up," Logano said.
"So I feel confident in our team that we can do it. People think that way because we have done it and we've done it multiple times, so I feel like we can show up again when it matters and do it in a different format."
