NASCAR: The penalty that cost Ryan Blaney a second championship

Three years in a row, Team Penske's Ryan Blaney finished in second place at Phoenix Raceway to wrap up the NASCAR Cup Series season. Yet all three results were vastly different in terms of the entire season's outcome.

In 2022, teammate Joey Logano beat him to the line to claim his second championship. But Blaney wasn't in the Championship 4 and therefore was not competing for a title.

In 2023, Trackhouse Racing Team's Ross Chastain beat him to the line. But Chastain was not championship eligible, and Blaney became the first driver of the Championship 4 era (2014 to present) to win a title despite not winning the championship race.

Then this past Sunday, Logano beat Blaney again, but this time, both drivers were eligible. So Logano claimed title number three, while Blaney was denied the opportunity to become the first back-to-back champion since Jimmie Johnson won five championships in a row from 2006 to 2010.

Yet had it not been for a penalty totally unrelated to Blaney, he would have won a second title.

Four weeks prior to the championship race, Logano was eliminated at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, as 23XI Racing's Tyler Reddick rallied to beat him to the eighth and final spot in the round of 8. The problem was that Hendrick Motorsports' Alex Bowman also advanced, and he was later disqualified when his No. 48 Chevrolet was found to be underweight.

So Bowman's penalty dropped him out of the round of 8, opening the door for Logano. All of a sudden, the driver of the No. 22 Ford once again had the opportunity to make it six for six in terms of advancing to the Championship 4 in even-numbered years.

And in his first opportunity to advance, he advanced, winning the round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to punch his ticket to the winner-take-all round.

Had Bowman not been penalized, Logano would have been out, and the Championship 4 would have consisted of Blaney, Reddick, Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron, and Joe Gibbs Racing's Christopher Bell. Bell ended up getting the short end of the stick and was eliminated in the round of 8.

With his second place finish on Sunday, Blaney finished higher than Reddick, Byron, and Bell, so had it not been for Bowman's penalty from four weeks prior, he would have been crowned champion for the second year in a row.

Perhaps one of the most criticized elements of the modern playoff format, aside from the obvious fact that it doesn't require drivers to bring their "A-game" every weekend, is the fact that so many unrelated situations end up being connected over such a short span of time, with only three races per round leading up to the title decider.

It's why we saw two manufacturers blatantly try to manipulate the outcome of the round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway. It has become somewhat farcical.

But this particular set of unrelated circumstances has to hurt even more so than the usual suspects.

Had it not been for a penalty issued to a driver who had absolutely nothing to do with Blaney, Blaney would have been the 2024 champion. Instead, Logano, whose average finish of 17.1 is the worst in Cup Series history among champions, is celebrating.

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season is scheduled to get underway with the 67th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 16. Live coverage is set to be provided by Fox from Daytona International Speedway.