“I don’t like William Byron anymore”: Team Penske ace throws cheeky shade at Rick Hendrick’s driver after crushing Phoenix denial

Joey Logano recently joked about not liking William Byron as a fellow racer anymore. Logano is off to a great start for Sunday’s Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway. He qualified second with a lap of 133.195 mph and will start from the front row alongside Hendrick Motorsports ace and pole-sitter William Byron.

This will be Logano’s third front-row start in four races this season. However, the Team Penske driver closely missed out on bagging the organization’s 700th pole. Reflecting on the same during a post-race media availability, Logano said (via Speedway Digest),

“I don't like William Byron anymore. Man, that stinks. I just got through telling (crew chief) Paul (Wolfe) that it would really suck if the last car beat us.”

"That was going to be Penske's 700th pole across all motorsports, so we'll have to go try and do that next week. But overall, proud of the effort,” Joey Logano further added.

Byron turned the fastest lap in the field at 133.680 mph, bagging his 14th career pole. If he manages to win the main event on Sunday, he will etch his name alongside his Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, as the only active drivers with wins from the pole at Phoenix.

However, Logano is the defending winner at Phoenix. He won the last Cup Series race held there in November (2024) en route to his third series championship.

Furthermore, Joey Logano has four wins at Phoenix to this day, besides five top-fives and eight top-10s. So delivering an overkill is not going to be easy for Byron, given how good Logano is at the mile-long oval in Avondale, Arizona.

Joey Logano sheds light on his fitness regime

When a NASCAR driver straps himself to a race car, he knows that by the time the race ends, it will have taken quite a toll on his body. So it’s advised that the drivers undergo regular endurance training.

On that note, Joey Logano revealed why he prefers endurance training as opposed to strength training. The Mustang maestro explained:

“I lift some as well, but everything's high reps because we don't want to be that big and bulky inside a race car. You gotta be able to do some for a long time, right?”

“Endurance is a huge thing, so you know, keeping your heart rate elevated for a long period of time seems to be something that's comparable to what's in the race car. So heat and elevated heart rate for a long period of time is probably the best way to train,” he added.

But Joey Logano doesn’t do CrossFit. At 34, the Middletown, Connecticut native is focused more on mobility than anything else. His job requires his joints to stay healthy, and he ensures the same by going out for runs from time to time.