Imagine if the New York Jets started every single NFL season 2-14. But because they always won in Week 18, they were crowned Super Bowl champions.
That's exactly how many NASCAR fans have long viewed Joey Logano's three Cup Series championships, even though it is indeed a little bit more complicated than that.
Logano got hot at the right time on three occasions, and despite never leading the series in total points scored, he was crowned champion on each of those occasions.
Perhaps the most egregious example took place in 2024, when he was 15th in the regular season standings. Sure, he was in the top 16, so he would have gotten in under the new format. But at that time, he needed to rely on a fuel-mileage, five-overtime win over the driver who was, at that point, last in the Cup Series standings. Without that win, he would have missed out.
He was then eliminated in the round of 12, reinstated for the round of 8 when another driver was disqualified, got to the Championship 4 with another win, and won the title. Yet despite an admittedly solid three-win postseason, he still wasn't top 10 in total points.
On one hand, fair is fair. Every driver was playing by the same rules. On another, are all rules inherently fair? What if the rule was "whoever scores the most 31st place finishes wins the title"? Is that not the "same thing for everybody" also? Congrats to Cody Ware, I guess.
But I digress.
NASCAR fans had long looked forward to the end of the playoff format that was in place from 2014 to 2025, and they finally got their wish over the offseason, with a reversion to the "Chase" format that was used from 2004 to 2013.
Ironically, had this format been in place from 2014 to 2025, Logano actually would have won four championships, which sort of diminished the whole "playoff merchant" nonsense that fans tried to use to downplay his status as a three-time champion.
Still, there were many fans under the impression that the No. 22 team would simply adjust to the new rules and game the system here just like they did in 2018, 2022, and 2024.
Clint Bowyer drops Joey Logano truth bomb
Through the first one-third of the season, and nearly one-half of the regular season, that could not be further from the truth.
His four most recent results now are 30th, 39th (DNF), 37th (DNF), and 38th. The 38th place finish on Sunday at Watkins Glen International was a last place finish after a tire issue left him several laps down.
He finds himself 38 points below the playoff cut line. He's 42 points below teammate Austin Cindric, who had his own rough start to the 2026 season and is regularly criticized for his performance relative to teammates Logano and Ryan Blaney.
After the Watkins Glen race, when Fox Sports was showing the updated point standings on the screen, Clint Bowyer responded when Logano was shown on the screen in 18th.
"Three-time champion. ... Surely he's gonna figure out how to get to the playoffs," Bowyer said, before pausing briefly. "But maybe not."
The reality is indeed "maybe not".
Logano was mocked on social media in October after referring to his 20th place finish at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval as a "championship" performance, simply because it got him from the round of 12 to the round of 8.
Under the new format, there is no hiding behind "championship performance" when it comes to these kinds of abysmal, non-championship caliber results.
Because championships mean something beyond the smallest of small sample sizes again.
There is no more being saved by a well-timed win, five overtimes, everybody else running out of fuel, or another driver's disqualification when it comes to the new postseason system.
Unless, of course, that all happens literally every week, which it doesn't.
Let's not forget to mention one thing: Logano is still certainly capable of winning races, even if he hasn't done that for over a year.
But the reality is that winning a race or two here and there may no longer be good enough, because consistency matters again. And for Logano, right now his only consistency is finishing 30th or worse, something he's done six times in his nine most recent starts.
So maybe Clint Bowyer was right: "maybe not."
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