"They are Jimmie Johnson-esque": HMS veteran lauds Joey Logano and Paul Wolfe's partnership

With three wins in the playoffs, including the all-important one at Phoenix, Joey Logano cruised his way onto his third NASCAR Cup title. But Logano's exploits, weren't all his own, as per legendary crew chief Steve Letarte.

The analyst and former crew chief recently appeared on Denny Hamlin's Actions Detrimental. And while he was sharing his thoughts on Logano's championship win, he took a moment to acknowledge his crew chief, Paul Wolfe.

The driver-turned-crew chief joined the #22 team led by Joey Logano in 2020. Together, the duo have won 13 races and 2 Cup championships. Interestingly, six of these 13 wins came in the playoffs.

"Joey Logano and Paul Wolfe's numbers are like postseason, all postseason. Logano has like 35 wins, I want to say 15 are in the playoffs. He won four races this year, three were in the playoffs. There's something about Paul Wolfe and Joey Logano and I'm not going to separate them because they've done this together. However they operate, however they prepare, either like I said consciously or just just subconsciously, they are without a doubt, they are Jimmie Johnson-esque when it comes to playoff numbers, career percentage of wins in the playoffs, everything," Letarte said. [21:30]

Letarte mentioned how Logano has been so prolific in the current championship format considering the #22 driver has won all three of his titles in the present playoff format.

How does Joey Logano keep on winning? Steve Letarte shares his thoughts

Speaking further about Joey Logano and how the #22 team finds ways to win, Steve Letarte used the examples of drivers like Kyle Larson and William Byron. For Letarte, drivers like Larson rely on being the fastest of all before wearing out their rivals.

However, for the former HMS crew chief, Byron 'is a little bit like' Logano because both teams focus on how to win on any given raceday.

"How does the #24 win on this day? And when I look at the #22's races and I think Joey's racing IQ is as high as anyone's. How do we win on this day? Because their wins are fuel mileage raw speed short runs like, I think they look at the puzzle and they say, 'Okay well, you know if we think we're going to gain enough speed to just outrun the #5 all day then we're already behind. So where is he weak? Where can we beat him?' And they just try to find and just kind of hope a little bit that the race falls their way," Letarte added. [25:00]

That being said, it'll be interesting to see how far Joey Logano and Paul Wolfe's partnership goes in NASCAR.

With the playoff format attracting a lot of criticism while the pair of Logano-Wolfe has mastered it, the next few years in the sport could turn out to be defining ones for the three-time Cup champion.