“He used to make a lot of mistakes”: Joey Logano makes his feelings known about Ryan Blaney’s ‘upper hand’ surge in Phoenix 

Three-time Cup Series champion Joey Logano recently expressed his views on Penske teammate Ryan Blaney's performance in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. Both Logano and Blaney were in pursuit of the coveted Cup Series title, however, Logano claimed the victory, and eventually the championship.

Joey Logano pilots the #22 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske Racing, competing full-time in the Cup Series. Logano secured his 36th Career win in NASCAR's top division at Phoenix Raceway, however, his Penske teammate Ryan Blaney did not make the job easy for him. Blaney, who was the reigning Cup Series champion, started the race on Sunday from P17 while Logano was on the front row with the retiring Martin Truex Jr., who secured the pole position in his final full-time Cup Series race.

Following the end of the race, the Connecticut native shared his thoughts on how Blaney was 'the hardest car to beat' in the championship race. In a recent episode of The Teardown, the #22 driver said(via Dirty Mo Media on X, formerly Twitter):

"I told Paul(Wolfe) and the guys that the #12(Blaney) is going to be the hardest car to beat. I know that because Ryan is so freaking good, he's got so much speed and he used to make a lot of mistakes so it didn't matter that much[...]Now he's good, like he's figured out the details really well, and he has speed so I knew that the #12 is gonna be really challenging to beat."

He added:

"So I knew he was gonna be hard to beat, and I had to beat him on details this weekend. I had to beat him on whether it's the head game, the pressure, the details of restarts, I had to beat him on that stuff. Because if it's just on raw speed, we don't have the upper hand,"

Blaney has one of the best track records at Phoenix Raceway of all the drivers competing in the Cup Series. The #12 driver has secured 9 top-five finishes in 18 races on the track. However, while Blaney made a valiant attempt to defend his title, Joey Logano's #22 team pulled off an incredible race and triumphed at Phoenix.

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“Make things happen when it matters”: Roger Penske's championship-winning driver Joey Logano reflects on triumph at Phoenix

The fate of the Championship Race changed after the final pit stop in stage three, where all front runners besides playoff driver William Byron went to pit road.

Before the stop, recently eliminated playoff driver Christopher Bell was leading the race, however, as the race restarted after a caution, Joey Logano, who was on fresher tires, passed both Byron and Bell at the infamous dogleg and drove in P1 until he reached victory lane.

Following the end of the race, Joey Logano expressed his emotions after winning his third Cup Series title since 2018 (via PRN).

“I love the playoffs. What a race. What a Team Penske battle there at the end. This is special. What a team to fight through the day. I got the best team. We are well rounded and can make things happen when it matters," Logano said

JGR driver Christopher Bell, who had led 143 laps in the championship race only managed to secure a P5 finish at Phoenix.