Whether the fans like it or not, luck does play a huge role in deciding a driver’s fate in NASCAR racing. Perhaps luck favored Harrison Burton, which saw him clinch a 100th win for Wood Brothers Racing at Daytona. Chase Briscoe had lady luck beside him when he came in with a clutch at Darlington to bag a playoff spot for outgoing Stewart Haas Racing. But the biggest winner out of them all has to be Joey Logano, who’s luck bailed him out at crucial junctures of the 2024 season.

And truth be told, without those lucky breaks, the Penske star wouldn’t have claimed his third NASCAR Cup Series crown. The turning point in Logano’s season has to be the Roval revival. Alex Bowman was the one who originally made his way into the Round of 8. But an overweight race car would see the #48 team being disqualified by NASCAR, allowing Logano to make the cut based on his points finish.

Bowman has pretty much kept himself away from speaking on this incident, but he opened up on the topic ahead of the NASCAR Awards. He did congratulate the #22 team for making the most of his misery but also took credit for helping Logano reach the final mile, all thanks to the muck up by the #48 team.

Alex Bowman played a vital role in Team Penske’s third straight title sweep

Out of all the race teams, Hendrick Motorsports was in the advantageous position, with all four of their drivers making it to the playoffs. Their objective was simple: to see one of the HMS drivers lift the Bill France trophy at Phoenix. However, their numerical advantage was reduced to three at a cutoff race in Roval. Bowman initially finished 18th, and that was enough for him to advance to the next round. Meanwhile, Joey Logano, despite a valiant effort and a P8 finish, came up short.

But in a dramatic turn of events, the #48 Chevy was found to be lightweight in the post-race inspection. This resulted in Bowman being dropped to a P38 finish and thus allowed the #22 team, who were next in line to take their place in the Round of 8. Now that the dust has settled over the incident and the season is concluded, the HMS driver shared his take on the event that transpired at Charlotte Roval. At the time, Joey Logano was told he was out of the the championship, when Bowman’s disqualification changed everything. From not being in the Round of 8 to winning it’s first round, Joey Logano wrote history in the 2024 NASCAR season.

“I hate it for our team, and our team works really hard and it’s just something that we made a mistake on. At the end of the day, it wasn’t something I did. So I think that would’ve made it weird, but yeah, just a bummer situation all around, right? Wanted a Hendrick car to win a championship and missed out on that, which sucked.” Bowman said this to Bob Pockrass.

The driver of the #48 team further added that Logano played by the card that he was dealt with, and fortunately, it worked out for him and his team. “Yeah, no congrats to him for taking advantage of the situation, right? Like he did what he needed to do. Honestly, we gave them an opportunity, and they capitalized on it, so congrats to them; they did a great job.”

However, not everyone was pleased to see Joey Logano win the championship in Phoenix. Many fans on social media argued about how luck played a crucial role in Logano’s championship win, suggesting format changes. Some even went as far as to say he wasn’t the worthy champion with an average finish of 17 throughout the 2024 season. But the Penske star wasn’t sold on the criticism of the format and had a perfect response to his critics after the win in Phoenix.

Joey Logano has no issues with the playoffs format

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All four race wins for the #22 team have come at a crucial time throughout the season. Logano won at Nashville, a race that had five over-time restarts, which resulted in mayhem and chaos. Fuel mileage tactics helped him advance to the Round of 12 at Atlanta, and a win in Las Vegas secured his spot in the Championship 4. While there was an element of luck involved in how Logano won the title, he was only making the most of the system in place. At least, his team didn’t try to fix the race like the Chevy drivers did at Martinsville.

Although there’s a growing demand to squash the playoff format, Logano isn’t sold on this rhetoric. “For someone to say this isn’t real, it’s a bunch of bull**** in my opinion. You can have a great regular season. It seeds you better for the playoffs. That doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to go all the way to the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup Finals or the NBA Finals. It doesn’t matter. It might help you. So I don’t like people talking that way because if the rules were the old way, we would play it out differently, wouldn’t we?” He said this after the historic win in Phoenix.

The playoffs have been a controversial topic over the years, but by no means is the current format perfect. Even though NASCAR is going to stick by the playoffs, they’ve kept the option of tweaking it open. It will be interesting to see if NASCAR brings about new changes to the system, and if they do, how will it impact racing in 2025.