The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is scheduled to mark Joey Logano’s 17th as a full-time competitor in the series and a season in which he enters as the reigning three-time champion. Before his quest to defend his title commences in the middle of February, he enters this upcoming weekend’s Cook Out Clash festivities at Bowman Gray Stadium with preparations for making his 17th career appearance in the season-opening exhibition event.
A native of Middletown, Connecticut, Logano’s inaugural presence in the Clash occurred in 2009, the year which he entered as a full-time Cup Series competitor for the first time as he replaced three-time champion Tony Stewart to pilot the No. 20 Toyota Camry entry for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR). Despite not securing a pole position during his first three series’ starts in the closing stages of the 2008 season, the event’s format, which enabled the top-six Toyota teams based on the 2008 owner’s standings to automatically qualify, allowed Logano to automatically qualify for the event since his No. 20 entry claimed ninth place in the previous season’s owner’s standings that was contributed by Stewart. Starting at the rear of the field due to missing the Clash’s drivers’ meeting, Logano ended up dead last, 28th, after he was involved in a multi-car wreck on the third lap.
Over his next three starts in the Clash, Logano achieved his first top-10 result in the event by finishing seventh in 2010, but crashed out in his next two starts. As the Connecticut native transitioned to Team Penske, beginning in 2013, he notched four consecutive top-six results over his following four starts. By then, he finished no higher than second place in the Clash, the latter of which occurred in 2016.
Then in 2017, Logano capitalized on a final-lap incident involving teammate Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin to storm to his first career Clash victory, where he beat Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman, and Danica Patrick by more than a second after maintaining a reasonable lead from the backstretch to the frontstretch. As a result, Logano became the 22nd competitor to win the Clash. He also delivered the third Clash victory for Team Penske and the first for the Ford nameplate since Dale Jarrett made the previous accomplishment in 2004.
Following his first victory in 2017, Logano would finish in the top three twice over his next three Clash starts. During the Clash’s lone event at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course in 2021, he finished third. Then, as NASCAR relocated the Clash to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2022, Logano, who started fourth, led 35 of 150-scheduled laps and fended off Kyle Busch by eight-tenths of a second to win the event for the second time in his career. As a result, the Connecticut native became the 12th competitor overall to win the exhibition event in a year where the current Next Gen stock cars debuted within NASCAR’s premier series. Since his latest Clash victory in 2022, Logano is coming off recent finishes of 16th and fourth, both of which occurred in the Coliseum.
Through 16 previous starts in the Clash, Logano has notched two victories, nine top-five results, 12 top-10 results, 67 laps led, and an average-finishing result of 7.8. Since Logano is the reigning Cup Series champion, he would be guaranteed the provisional spot to make the event based on his 2024 driver’s standings result (first place) if he were not to transfer to the Clash by the Heats or the Last Chance Qualifier event. As a result, Logano, who holds the third-highest Clash starts among active drivers entering the 2025 season at 16, is primed to make his 17th career start in this weekend’s main event.
With 16 starts, Logano is also currently tied with Geoff Bodine, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ricky Rudd, and Tony Stewart on the Clash’s all-time starts list. A 2025 berth would enable him to tie former Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman for having the sixth-most Clash starts of all time at 17. A 2025 victory would enable him to tie Kevin Harvick, Dale Jarrett, and Tony Stewart for having the third-most Clash victories at three.
The 2025 Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium is scheduled to occur on Sunday, February 2, with a starting broadcast time at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.