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2024 Cup Phoenix II Joey Logano championship flag (Credit: NKP)
Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography

Thinkin’ Out Loud at Phoenix: How Much Does the NASCAR Championship Matter Anymore?

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What Happened?

Joey Logano held off hard-charging teammate Ryan Blaney on Sunday (Nov. 10) to win the NASCAR Cup Series season finale race at Phoenix Raceway, earning his third career series championship. William Byron, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell rounded out the top five behind them.

Team Penske remains undefeated in championships in the Next Gen car era. It’s also the first time the team has ever ended a Cup season with a 1-2 finish in the standings.

What Really Happened?

Logano won his third career title and became the champion with the lowest average finish in the history of the Cup Series.

And everybody is just so gosh darn happy about it.

Even the most die-hard NASCAR loyalist has to admit they may have a point.

If a driver can have what is statistically the worst year ever run in a championship-winning season under the modern format, then perhaps it begs the question of how much meaning the Cup championship even has at this point.

For example, you might think a driver winning a title may require them to be in top form, but this year that wasn’t the case. In fact, when Logano crossed the line at Phoenix on Sunday, he ended his season with an average finish of 17.6 — the lowest he has had since 2011 and the third-lowest of his career.

Additionally, Logano also earned seven top fives and 13 top 10s in 2024. That’s his least amount since he joined Penske in 2013.

But what about the other drivers? Perhaps his competition simply didn’t perform?

Well, no. Not really.

Logano had the 16th-highest average finish out of anyone in the full-time Cup Series field.

For top 10s, he was 13th.

In top fives? 11th. Laps led? Ninth. Stage wins? Eighth. The list goes on.

So … how? How did Logano and the No. 22 Ford Mustang team sneak their way into the playoffs, through all three rounds of elimination and win the championship?

Well, there is one statistic for which Logano was almost No. 1: wins.

Logano garnered four race wins when they mattered the most, and whether you like it or not, that is what the current format rewards.

What many do not seem to understand is when NASCAR changed the format in 2014 to what we have today, winning the title was no longer about consistency. It became about explosive runs and walk-off wins. For fans to argue today that a champion isn’t legitimate based on the 20-year-old bias that season-long consistency matters most simply doesn’t work with today’s format.

But does that mean it’s valid? While NASCAR executives might argue so, it’s not really up to them, is it? It’s up to fans to decide, and right now it doesn’t look like they agree.

Who Stood Out?

It was Blaney and Logano versus the world on Sunday, and the former won.

The Penske drivers led a combined 119 laps during the afternoon and won stages one and two. However, their performance was highlighted thanks to Blaney’s hunt of his teammate for the lead and, thus the championship, with less than 25 laps to go.

Blaney cut down a whopping three-second gap to his teammate to reach Logano’s back bumper. Alas, Logano defended superbly and was able to hold him off to earn Roger Penske’s third straight Cup Series title.

But earlier in the race, there was a spoiler in the works.

Bell may have received a penalty last weekend at Martinsville Speedway last week that eliminated him from the Championship 4, but on Sunday he drove like nobody had told him that.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver led a total of 143 out of 312 laps on Sunday afternoon, which was not only the most of the day, but more than the dynamic Penske duo led combined.

He finished his afternoon in fifth after a restart with less than 70 laps to go relegated him there, but his early race dominance was a testament to the speed of the No. 20 Toyota.

The same could not be said for the Toyota that did make the Championship 4.

Who Fell Flat?

Did you know that Tyler Reddick was in this race too? He was even in the Championship 4 no less.

Not only did Reddick not lead any laps, he also spent a majority of the 312-lap event outside of the top five.

While Byron and the Hendrick Motorsports speed of the No. 24 could at least contend with the Fords of Logano and Blaney, the No. 45 of Reddick didn’t have the same pace to compete. Rather than a setup issue or how the handling of the car being the problem, it almost seemed like the 23XI Racing car lacked the one thing that a crew chief can’t help in the middle of a race — raw speed.

There was a moment during the final restart of the race where Reddick showed a brief sign of life when he performed a whale of a restart that gained him four spots in one lap.

But once there, he didn’t make any more ground.

Reddick, much to the dismay of NBA legend Michael Jordan who stood on pit road to watch each lap intently, could only watch as the rest of the Championship 4 pulled away from him.

With the uncertainty of what 23XI Racing’s charter situation will be in 2025, it’s unknown when we’ll see the No. 45 back on the track again.

Better Than Last Time?

How many times do folks need to beg to move the championship race until NASCAR finally does it?

Sunday’s race featured four cautions and 16 lead changes, nearly identical to last year’s season finale. There simply wasn’t much improvement.

Phoenix’s racing quality isn’t terrible, and the grandstand selling out every year allows NASCAR to give a valid argument to continue returning there for its finale.

However, watching Blaney catch Logano with around five laps to go and not be able to overtake him is a painful reminder that Phoenix also isn’t the best track on the schedule — at least not with the Next Gen car.

While racing executives can hem and haw over how the sport can make the Next Gen car improved over these kinds of tracks, let’s remember there was a race two weeks ago at a track that used to be the season finale that many are saying was the best playoff race in history.

Was the racing terrible? No, despite the gripes, passing did occur. But most will probably tell you it can be better.

Paint Scheme of the Race

As if it could possibly be anything else.

It’s one of those paint schemes that is an instant winner. That’s not only because it’s sentimental as a throwback to Martin Truex Jr.’s first career Cup start in 2004 with Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, but it’s also a great looking car.

While it couldn’t have the “E” stripes like his 2004 car did for silly legal reasons, the color palette remains almost identical, and it’ll certainly be a popular addition for many diecast collectors.

It was a fitting design to end a legendary full-time career of someone that is almost certainly a future Hall of Famer.

What’s Next?

A well-deserved break.

Despite everything, 2024 was a historic year for the sport that had moments we’ll be looking at in NASCAR promotional posts for decades to come, such as the closest finish in Cup Series history at Kansas Speedway in May. But there will also be rightfully reflections of controversy like the events at Martinsville Speedway last weekend.

With all that said, it may be hard to remember that the next time we will see Cup cars on track will be at the quarter-mile Bowman Gray Stadium for the Busch Light Clash on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025 — a historical first — live on FOX.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next year.

Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loudcolumn, co-host of the Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.

Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT

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