Even-year Joey Logano. It’s no longer a meme, but rather the world we live in.
Just when it looked like Logano’s streak of making the Championship 4 every even-numbered year since the format’s inception had come to an end at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, a shocking DQ of Alex Bowman and some brilliant fuel strategy from crew chief Paul Wolfe at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this Sunday (Oct. 20) sent Logano to his third win of the season and a sixth Championship 4 appearance, more than any other driver.
Logano’s win at Las Vegas was the 35th of his Cup career, breaking a three-way tie with Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. for 25th on the all-time win list. The triumph also marked Logano’s fourth checkered flag at Las Vegas, which ties him with Jimmie Johnson for the most Cup wins all time in Sin City.
Logano has been in this position before, and there’s arguably no driver better than him at maximizing results come playoff time.
All Logano’s Championship 4 appearances since 2018 have come by winning the opening race in the Round of 8. Not only is he making it to the final race, but he’s doing it without breaking a sweat.
Make no mistake, Logano is an experienced driver who knows how to work the playoff system to his advantage. But the fact that he managed to make the Championship 4 this season — in what is arguably the worst season of his entire tenure at Team Penske — is unprecedented in the stage-racing era.
With three races to go in the 2024 season, Logano currently has a stat line of three wins, six top fives, 11 top 10s, 307 laps led and an average finish of 17.5.
Three wins ties Logano for the second-most wins of any driver this season, but he is currently on pace to score the fewest top fives, fewest top 10s and the worst average finish of his 12-year tenure at Penske.
Part of the reason why Logano’s counting stats are so low in 2024 is because of his horrendous start to the year. After 18 races, he had five top 10s, five finishes of 28th or worse and sat 14th in points. And with two laps to go in the 19th race of the season at Nashville Superspeedway, Logano was on pace to finish 14th.
On pace to finish 14th until Penske teammate Austin Cindric spun and brought out a caution, which was the catalyst for an unprecedented 5OT finish. Logano pulled off an incredible fuel save to take the win after 31 extra laps, and the 5OT finish was his ticket into the playoffs in a season where he would’ve been nowhere close to qualifying on points.
Logano’s Round of 16 got off to a splendid start with his second Cup win at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which sent him to the Round of 12. The Big One at Talladega Superspeedway in the Round of 12 left him on the outside looking in for the elimination race at the Charlotte ROVAL, and Tyler Reddick passed enough cars in the final green flag run to eliminate Logano from championship contention by four points.
That is, until Bowman’s aforementioned disqualification, which sent Logano through to the next round. In the 11-year history of NASCAR elimination format, Bowman’s DQ marks the only time a driver who would’ve advanced to the next round of the playoffs was eliminated on the spot.
A fortunate break for Logano, and one that he and the No. 22 team immediately capitalized on at Las Vegas. Christopher Bell had the dominant car of the day, but he and the rest of the frontrunners played passive pit strategy by pitting with 40 laps to go, which allowed Logano, Daniel Suarez and several other drivers to roll the dice and stretch a tank of fuel for the final 69 laps.
Logano had been a fifth-place car all day, but he made the winning pass on Suarez with six to go — with an assist from teammate Ryan Blaney who was eight laps down — and held off a hard-charging Bell by just over half a second to take the checkered flag.
It took a 5OT finish for Logano to qualify for the playoffs and a post-race disqualification in the Round of 12 for him to even get to this point, but even-year Logano defied all the odds to reach the Championship 4 once again.
His wins aside, one could argue that Logano’s 2024 is the weakest individual season to qualify for the Championship 4 since the start of stage racing and the introduction of playoff points in 2017.
Below is a chart showing the “statistical lows” of every driver to qualify for the Championship 4 since 2017. The fewest wins a driver had, the fewest top fives a driver had, the fewest top 10s, the worst average finish and so on.
Let’s compare those numbers to Logano’s stat line through the first 33 races of 2024.
By qualifying for the Championship 4 this season, Logano is guaranteed to set the record for the fewest top fives, the fewest top 10s, the worst average finish and the fewest points scored over a full season of all the drivers who have made the Championship 4 in the stage racing and playoff points era.
The remaining seven drivers in the Round of 8 currently rank first through seventh in the most points scored over the entire season; Logano ranks 15th and is the first to lock in a spot at Phoenix.
Whether Logano’s qualification for the Championship 4 with the season he’s had is a poor reflection on the system or the story of an incredible underdog is open to individual interpretation.
But what’s not open to interpretation is the fact that championships decided by consistent excellence and week-in, week-out performance are dead, if they hadn’t been killed already.
Win and you’re in; nothing else matters.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Can find on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.
What you didnt say was the reason why loganos average finish was weak is bc i dont think he finished a super speedway race without wrecking. That alone will kill the average finish stats also getting wrecked by dillon while leading the race was another bad position race. But it is what it is and im sure the 22 car will be a contender at the championship 4 if not the favorite to win it all again.
“Win and you’re in; nothing else matters.”
So….. The fans cried for making winning worth more, and now that it does, the fans still cry about this format?
Sometimes I wonder if the fans want a series where there are no yellows, the drivers buy a car off a showroom lot, load it with pillows, no speed limits on pit road, and if a driver causes an accident, he’s banned from racing permanently.
I believe what real “race” fans want is a real “race” with real “race” cars which disappeared as of 2004. NA$CAR doesn’t want those fans.