Joey Logano drove with his wife, Brittany, and their three young children on the night of Nov. 6 to Phoenix Raceway, the site of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship race four days later. With his kids in the backseat, he asked, "You guys ready to go get there and get the flag after we win?"

After excitement and emphatic approval from his kids in response, Logano realized he should probably hold up his end of the bargain.

"I knew I better make this happen," he tells TODAY.com.

Logano did make it happen, emerging victorious after holding off teammate and 2023 champion Ryan Blaney from passing his Ford Mustang Dark Horse in the final lap. It’s his third championship in six years, after winning in 2018 and 2022.

"It still hits you," Logano, 34, explains. "It's hard to sleep. It's hard to put all your feelings into words, just because it's that big of a deal. It's so hard to do these championships."

Logano battling a teammate with a championship on the line would be an unusual scenario in most sports, but teams like his Team Penske understand the necessary sacrifices to achieve victory. Logano stayed in the zone, kept his movements precise and outlasted his teammate for the win.

"There's no other sport where you go into the Super Bowl, if you will, competing against your teammate," Logano says. "It's an awkward kind of thing but we also know we have to work together if we're even going to have a chance to win. So you have to be OK with finishing second to your teammate. ... With that approach, that allowed us to be pretty strong. We were really the best two cars."

This is Logano's third championship win under the sport's elimination playoff format that has been in play since 2014. For 10 races, drivers move through stages of elimination until the final race, where only four drivers in the field of cars are eligible to win the championship.

The win has come with its fair share of controversy across the internet. Fans have criticized the format as "gimmicky" in the past, but Logano said during an appearance on the 3rd hour of TODAY it sets up "high-pressure moments that fans love to watch."

And Logano lives for those high-pressure moments.

"Personally, I do better under pressure. I just do," Logano tells TODAY.com. "I don't know what that is, but I got to find ways to back myself against the wall so I can put the pressure on myself, and I just get better."

Logano is now one of five drivers in NASCAR history to win three championships before the age of 35. One of the other drivers in that select group is NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon, now the vice chair of Hendrick Motorsports. Gordon was quick to give praise to the champion amid the criticism of the playoff format.

“He’s a champion driver, that’s a champion team and they proved it again today. I knew when he got through to this final four, that it doesn’t matter what he’s done the rest of the season — and you could debate whether he was deserving to be here or not — you knew he was going to be a major factor,” Gordon told NBC Sports on Nov. 10.

"That's really neat, that's the first I've heard it," Logano says of Gordon complimenting him on his championship victory. "Jeff Gordon is one of the all-time greats. He's top five, so to have any compliment from him is really special."

It's hard for Logano to get an appreciation for his own work when he's in the driver's seat during a race. After his win at Phoenix, Logano has watched highlights on social media of the celebration of his win.

"As a race car driver, you don't see the raw emotion from everybody immediately because you're in the car," Logano says. "Now you get to see some of those films with the guys celebrating on pit road immediately after crossing the finish line. That stuff hits you hard ... you just kind of keep reliving it in your mind."

This is the first championship Logano can celebrate with his 2-year-old daughter, Emilia. Logano also has two sons — Hudson, 6, and Jameson, 4. Hudson's become a racing fan; Jameson, not so much.

“I don’t think he completely understands all of it. I don’t think he cares,” Logano says while laughing.

Logano might be a top driver in NASCAR, but it's clear that his family is his top team. He mentions a photo he saw of his family walking up to get the checkered flag after his victory at Phoenix, a moment that separates the third championship from the first two.

"It's fun to dream about things sometimes," Logano says. "But actually living the dream is a whole different level. ... The trophy is cool, but the memories is in those photos."

The initial plan was for the entire family to climb into the car for a drive in victory lane when the race was over. But his daughter ultimately wasn't into the idea, according to Logano.

Logano picked up his sons one by one and placed them in the car. Hudson wore a checkered-flag shirt while holding the checkered flag his dad had promised days earlier. His two sons got to sit with their dad as they took a proper drive down victory lane.

“The sport will go on without me," Logano says. "I hope it does. You want it to. But it will, and I’ll be forgotten, and all you have at that moment is your memories, your family. That’s it. Your family becomes ultraimportant because you know that’s your future.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com