Joey Logano finds himself in unwanted territory after becoming the first defending Cup Series champion to set a ‘failed’ precedent

Reigning Cup Series champion Joey Logano is not off to a good start in the 2025 season. He has failed to secure a solid finish in the four races on all kinds of tracks. Despite solid qualifying and practice sessions, Logano has struggled to deliver a solid performance in the main race.

He debuted in the Cup Series in 2008 at the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway under Joe Gibbs Racing. Logano secured a full-time seat in 2009 and competed for four seasons for JGR. He switched to Team Penske in 2013 and has been with the team since then. Additionally, he won three Cup Series championship titles with the team.

NASCAR's insight page shared a post on X and revealed that Joey Logano failed to land a top-10 finish in the first four races of the following season. He became the first defending Cup Series champion to do so.

"Joey Logano is the first defending NASCAR Cup Series Champion to fail to earn a top 10 finish in the first 4 races of the following season," the caption read.

Logano qualified in the top 10 drivers on the grid for the 'Greatest American Race' Daytona 500. However, he couldn't enter the top 10 drivers and finished in P35 in the 500-mile race. The same thing happened at the Atlanta Motor Speedway; the Team Penske driver qualified in P4 for the race and finished in P12, two spots behind, securing his season's first top-10 finish.

Last weekend, the #22 Ford Mustang Dark Horse driver competed at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) and had a slow run. He qualified in P23 and ended the 95-lap race outside of the top 10 again. Even in the Shriners Children's 500, Joey Logano couldn't make his way into the top 10 finishers.

Logano had a solid qualifying run at Phoenix Raceway, starting the race from the front row. However, he fell three spots short of entering the top 10 drivers. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell took home his third consecutive win of the 2025 season.

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Team Penske driver Joey Logano opened up about his typical mindset despite confronting the season’s ‘most frustrating thing’

Before the Shriners Children's 500, defending champion Joey Logano was featured in a pre-interview on Cup Scene's YouTube channel. The interviewer reflected upon Logano's rank in the drivers' standing and asked whether he felt "frustrated" about it.

Logano jumped three spots and ranks ninth in the leaderboard with 110 points and no top-10 finish in four starts. Additionally, he has led the most number of laps (207) among fellow Cup Series drivers.

Gazing upon the stats of the reigning champion, the reporter asked [18:15 onwards]:

"I wanted to ask you if you sit here more frustrated or more encouraged by the season because you've obviously led the most laps of anyone. You've been so strong in all of the races but haven't gotten the top tens or even the victories. You could argue that you would probably want where do you kind of see yourself?"

Joey Logano replied:

"Uh, just rolling with the punches like I typically do at this time of year, um, right? You go out there and you try to just maximize your day, uh, get out there, and like I said, lead laps, score as many stage points as you can get the best finish you possibly can."

"Um, last week was going, looking like it was actually pretty good, um, where we get those nine stage points in the first stage. We got back up to like seventh there at the end, um, before I got ran off the racetrack and then dumped all in one lap. Um, that's frustrating. I can tell you that's probably the most frustrating thing that happened all year," he added.

Joey Logano has secured 68 wins in all three NASCAR series, including 34 in the Cup Series under the Team Penske banner. Additionally, he has won 31 pole positions in top-tier stock car racing, 36 in the second-tier, and two in third-tier racing.