“If you’re not the #12 team, nobody else wants to be here": Joey Logano opens up about Ryan Blaney's NASCAR Awards Banquet speech

Two-time NASCAR Cup champion Joey Logano is fired up for the 2024 season, after attending the NASCAR Awards Banquet where his teammate Ryan Blaney was crowned as the 2023 Cup Series champion.

Logano entered the past season as the reigning champion and qualified for the playoffs with a dominant victory in Atlanta. However, he was knocked out in the elimination race for the first round at Bristol Motor Speedway. Blaney carried Penske's title hopes and put together a mighty effort in the final six races to win the 2023 Cup title.

Competing at the highest level, the #22 Team Penske driver admitted that no team who lost the championship genuinely wished to attend the Awards Banquet. However, he added that the champion deserved the celebration.

"A little more angry. I mean, honestly, that’s what the banquet does to you. If you’re not the 12 team, nobody else wants to be here. I mean, this is what it’s about. It’s about the champion. It should be about the champion when you come to the banquets," he was quoted as saying by NASCAR.com.

"They should be celebrated, but I can tell you right now, when you sit down there and you watch someone else be celebrated, it’s the most motivating thing you can ever ask for. So you come here and you leave a little mad, but motivated to go up there and do something better," he added.

Joey Logano is envious of Ryan Blaney's season but sees it as motivation to keep the title in Penske's possession at the end of 2024, making it three in a row for 'The Captain'.

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Joey Logano praises the culture at Team Penske

Team Penske has swept both the titles in the NASCAR Cup Series next-gen era, with Joey Logano in 2022 and Blaney defending it successfully last season.

Logano heaped praises on the work culture at Team Penske that has brought them success in recent years. He credited Roger Penske for putting together a group of winners at the Mooresville, North Carolina facility.

"It’s just the type of people we are, honestly, I think is what it is. You put a bunch of winners around each other, you’re gonna win," Joey Logano told NASCAR.com.

"I said it last year in my speeches, you can’t fly like an eagle when you’re working with a bunch of turkeys, and there’s a lot of eagles that work in that building. If you believe in the saying, ‘you are who you hang out with,’ you’re going to become that way, too. That’s what culture is, right? That’s what we’ve built around there," he added.

Team Penske has won 12 championships in the last six years across NASCAR, IndyCar, IMSA, and Supercars series.