Logano Joins Elite Club
by Tom Jensen November 15, 2024
With his third NASCAR Cup Series Championship, Joey Logano becomes one of 10 drivers who have won at least three titles in the sport's top division.
Team Penske driver Joey Logano made history on November 10, winning his third NASCAR Cup Series championship, vaulting him into the upper echelon of the sport’s title winners.
Only 10 drivers have won three or more Cup Series titles since 1949, with Logano being the latest to join the club. The other nine are all NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees: Two members of the Hall’s inaugural Class of 2010, Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt won seven championships each, a feat later matched by Jimmie Johnson (Class of 2024). Johnson’s former teammate, Jeff Gordon (Class of 2019) won four titles.
That leaves six drivers with three championships each. Here they are, in chronological order:
Under the leadership of patriarch Lee Petty, NASCAR racing became the family business in the 1950s and beyond, with Petty Enterprises eventually winning 10 championships and 268 races. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archive & Research Center via Getty Images
Lee Petty - 1954, ’58, ‘59
NASCAR’s first three-time Cup Series champion, Lee Petty (Class of 2011) was one of the sport’s early pioneers as well as the patriarch of the Petty family. Lee’s best season came in 1959, when he won the inaugural Daytona 500, one of 11 victories that year. Petty also holds the NASCAR record for most victories on dirt, winning 42 of his 54 Cup races on dirt tracks. Lee’s sons Richard and Maurice (Class of 2014) went on to have Hall of Fame careers of their own.
Teamed up with car owner and fellow Hall of Famer Cotton Owens, David Pearson was one of the top performers of the mid-1960s. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archive & Research Center via Getty Images
David Pearson - 1966, ’68, ‘69
No. 2 all-time with 105 Cup Series race victories, David Pearson (Class of 2011) is one of two drivers on this list of three-time champions to win titles with two different owners. Pearson claimed his first crown driving a Dodge for fellow South Carolinian Cotton Owens (Class of 2013) in 1966. Two years later, Pearson won the first of two consecutive titles driving Holman Moody Racing Fords. In his three championship seasons alone, Pearson won a total of 42 races.
Cale Yarborough (left) delivered the first three of Hall of Fame team owner Junior Johnson’s six NASCAR Cup Series championships. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archive & Research Center via Getty Images
Cale Yarborough - 1976, ’77, ‘78
One of NASCAR’s all-time toughest competitors, Cale Yarborough (Class of 2012) was the first of only two drivers in the history of the sport to win three consecutive Cup Series championships. Yarborough won all three titles driving for legendary car owner Junior Johnson (Class of 2010). Tied with Jimmie Johnson for sixth on the all-time win list with 83 victories, Yarborough won 28 races in 90 starts during his three-year title run.
Team owner Junior Johnson (left) and driver Darrell Waltrip dominated NASCAR’s short tracks in the early to mid-1980s. Photo courtesy of NASCAR Archive & Research Center via Getty Images
Darrell Waltrip - 1981, ’82, ‘85
Like Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2012, and like Yarborough, Waltrip earned all three of his titles driving for Junior Johnson. A master of Southern short tracks, Waltrip entered 89 races and won 27 of them during his three championship seasons. For his career, Waltrip’s 84 victories rank him fifth overall in the NASCAR record books.
The celebration was on after Tony Stewart’s remarkable 2011 run to a third NASCAR championship. Photo courtesy of Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Tony Stewart - 2002, 2005, 2011
Along with fellow Hall of Famer Lee Petty, Tony Stewart (Class of 2020) is the only owner/driver on this list and one of only two drivers to win titles with multiple owners. In Stewart’s case, he won his first two titles driving for Joe Gibbs (Class of 2020) before making an amazing surge in the 2011 NASCAR playoffs in his own Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. After going winless in the 26-race regular season, Stewart won five of the 10 playoff races to wrest the title from Carl Edwards (Class of 2025) on a tiebreaker based off most victories for the year.
Flanked by NASCAR Hall of Fame team owner Roger Penske, Joey Logano was all smiles as he and his boss held up three fingers in Victory Lane at Phoenix Raceway, where Logano claimed his third championship. Photo courtesy of Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Joey Logano - 2018, 2022, 2024
No one has done a better job than Joey Logano adapting to the playoff format that NASCAR instituted in 2014. In the 11 years of the winner-take-all Championship 4 format, Logano not only won three championships, he qualified for the title race six times, more than any other driver. Team owner Roger Penske (Class of 2019) now has five Cup Series title with Logano’s three and one each from Brad Keselowski in 2012 and Ryan Blaney in 2023.
