NASCAR: Joey Logano not a 'fake' champion, but two things can be true

With an average finish of 17.1 and a total point tally that only ranked 11th in the NASCAR Cup Series over the entire 36-race season, Team Penske's Joey Logano was crowned champion for the third time in the last seven years on Sunday afternoon at Phoenix Raceway.

Outrage over a potential Logano championship was brewing for several weeks, specifically since he advanced out of the round of 12 due to Alex Bowman's disqualification.

Logano, who finished the regular season in 15th place in the point standings and would not have even gotten into the playoffs had it not been for a five-overtime win at Nashville Superspeedway, proceeded to win the round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to punch his ticket to the Championship 4.

Yet despite a lackluster regular season, he did what nobody else could: he earned the right to be crowned 2024 NASCAR Cup Series champion.

And whether you want to hear it or not, the rules were the exact same for everybody.

He was one of the four drivers who earned a Championship 4 berth, and he finished the Championship 4 as the best of the four. There is simply no argument that his championship was "fake", regardless of whatever preconceived notion you might have had about other drivers being "more deserving" based on criteria that ultimately meant absolutely nothing.

But just because Logano won the championship fair and square doesn't mean criticism of the format is not permissible.

The fact that Logano is statistically the worst champion in the 76-year history of the sport – in more ways than one – exposed the fact that the playoff format is, in certain ways, flawed, to the point where it was almost an embarrassment for NASCAR, especially since it came just days after Elton Sawyer's comments that the modern format requires drivers to bring the "A-game" every week (it doesn't).

Yet in a roundabout way, Logano's title was exactly what NASCAR needed. Drivers in second or third place in points winning the title is one thing; fans are going to complain regardless. We see it every year. But 11th?

Part of me wishes Harrison Burton would have gone on a deep playoff run for this very reason – just to add to the egg that's all over NASCAR's face following Sawyer's relatively tone-deaf comments.

It's easy to suggest that Logano and the No. 22 team could have approached the playoffs differently had a different format been in play. I'm sure that part of that is true. They utilized the format to their advantage all the way until the checkered flag flew on Sunday.

So what if they had 15 finishes outside of the top 20? They did what they had to do when they had to do it. Nobody else did.

But Logano was competing for absolutely nothing in four of the nine playoff races leading up to the Championship 4. In no other sport – "stick and ball" sports included – can this be said. It's almost like the equivalent of a four-week first round bye for a team that made the playoffs via the last wild card spot.

And this format supposedly requires you to bring your A-game every week?

It goes without saying that the playoff format is far from perfect. This year's championship took that realization to new heights. But at the same time, some of the criticism is nonsense.

While the whole "NASCAR isn't a stick and ball sport" argument is cute, it doesn't change the fact that there is nothing whatsoever that says, "NASCAR must award the championship to the driver with the most points".

Now 21 years into the playoff era, you'd think fans would have figured that out.

Baseball is a "stick and ball" sport too, and the playoffs used to be just the World Series. Postseason evolution isn't restricted to certain sports.

But then you go on social media and realize that no matter what happens, there is going to be endless whining. Even if NASCAR were to change the format, there is no way to make everybody happy.

The complaints from past postseasons have almost ensured that this year's complaints will fall on deaf ears. NASCAR fans have cried wolf one too many times to be taken seriously, even though this year's championship has given them more justified ammunition than ever before.

And let's face it. Even a basic, regular season-long points format would be controversial in this day and age, due to the existence of stage racing and thus the awarding of points at random laps during each race.

You could technically win all 36 races and finish in 11th place in the point standings, and you could technically finish no higher than 16th all year long and win the championship. Stage racing almost makes a season-long points format more gimmicky than any postseason format could.

So once again, we have arrived at the same conclusion. Block out the fans who are kicking and screaming that their driver didn't win, and it's clear that Logano was the only driver worthy of being crowned champion. Unlike everybody else, he earned it, and there is nothing tainted about it.

Having said that, two things can be true at once.

Logano's title indisputably proved once and for all that the playoff format is fundamentally flawed. The problem is that NASCAR probably isn't going to listen. But at this point, can you blame them?