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2024 Cup Series champion Joey Logano responded to the people questioning the legitimacy of his championship win because of his performance in the entire season. He also explained that NASCAR's format is no different from other sports.
Logano won at Phoenix to clinch his third Cup Series championship and the first since 2022. Although he had been performing competitively in the final few races, his performance early in the season was very much under the radar of the critics. Moreover, with 17.4, Joey Logano had the worst average finish of a Cup Series champion in the history of the sport.
As many questioned the legitimacy of his championship because of the format and his relatively average finish in the season, Joey Logano responded by saying:
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"No," when asked if he would say anything to the critics. " No. I got out of the side of him. I got a pretty sweet trophy right now."
"I've been laughing all the way to the bank."
Post the race in Phoenix, Joey Logano bagged four wins, 13 top 10 finishes, 7 top 5, and 6 DNFs. Although his previous competitors such as Kyle Larson had much better statistics on paper, he could not make it to the Championship 4 after the race at Martinsville. However, Logano feels that this format is not wrong as he explained it in terms of other sports.
Joey Logano defends the NASCAR playoff system
The playoff system can sometimes be harsh on the drivers who have performed excellently throughout the length of a season but fail to qualify in the final few spots for the championship contention. At the same time, however, it can also be a great opportunity for a driver who has had a subpar season but manages to put in a victory and remains consistent in the final races. Fans have also regularly criticized this format.
However, Joey Logano took the example of other sports to defend the playoff system. He said:
"The only reason why they don't say this about other sports is because they didn't change the playoff system. But the playoff system and other sports is not much different than what this is. You can have a great regular season. It sees you better for the playoffs, right? Now, that doesn't mean you're guaranteed to go all the way to Super Bowl or to Stanley Cup finals or to NBA finals. It doesn't matter."
He further explained that this format allows the drivers to have equal opportunity while battling for the championship. He supported this by discussing how he entered the playoffs versus how others did.
"And it's the same way in NASCAR, the way we have the rules now, is that you set yourself up much better, right? You look at the way we came into the playoffs versus the 5, the 45. Those guys that scored 15 playoff points for winning the regular season championship, that's three wins worth of points in three races. That's hard to make up that amount of points. And they have the same opportunity to go out there and win and move on to the next round. So for someone to say this isn't real, it's a bunch of bullshit, in my opinion. That's wrong."
This was Joey Logano's third Cup Series championship. Meanwhile, Team Penske also had a 1 - 2 finish in the Owners' Championship with Logano's teammate Ryan Blaney finishing right behind him. He was chasing his second title this season.
