Joey Logano lit up the Phoenix Speedway en route to his third Cup series title. His even-year luck and clutch playoff performances worked out for a third time after he had bagged the championship in 2018 and 2022. While Logano put up an amazing race, he was also quite vocal about his competitor, Ryan Blaney, as the #12 gave him a run for his money. 

Blaney was the defending Cup series champion heading into Phoenix on the back of an impressive win at Martinsville, which booked his ticket to the final 4. Sound familiar? Well, that’s because Ryan Blaney’s finished in the exact same position in his last two races for two seasons in a row! Except this time, a P2 at Phoenix was not enough for the Cup series championship. Although his effort to claw back from a p17 start to within three-tenths of a second of Logano was mighty impressive and garnered praise from the 3-time champ.

Logano finds Blaney as a tough competitor to cross

For each spectator who had witnessed the Phoenix Finale, there came a point when they thought that Ryan Blaney had finally figured out how to topple Logano and secure the checkered flag once again. A lead that had been over three seconds roughly 40 laps earlier had now shrunk to just over two-tenths. Blaney, with a noticeably faster Ford Mustang, was pushing his Penske Racing teammate hard, bringing his car right up to their rear bumper. However, it just was not enough as Logano powered his way through to the checkered flag.

Logano was able to cross the line just 0.330 seconds earlier than Blaney, which indeed shows how close the call was. If Ryan Blaney was able to get a couple more laps, one cannot deny that he might have got the precedence. Recounting the tough battle, Logano said, “I told Paul and the guys that the 12 is going to be the hardest car to beat. And I know that because Ryan is so freaking good. He’s got so much speed. He used to make a lot of mistakes so it didn’t matter that much. I was like, he’s gonna hit the wall, or he’s going to speed on pit road, or something’s going to happen, and he won’t be, you know, a threat. And now he’s good. He has figured out the details really well, and he has the speed.” The close calls between Blaney and Logano were a sight to behold and there’s no doubt that Roger Penske was enjoying it the most. With his third championship, Joey Logano joins drivers like Tony Stewart, Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, and many more on the all-time list. 

Logano ended up leading 107 laps out of the 312 laps and it was evident that Blaney was giving his all to pass him on the Phoenix Raceway. He was so vested in passing him that he looked extremely tired and had to be assessed with the help of a medical team after the race. Blaney spoke to the media after the race and simply said, “I’m worn out.” That’s what chasing Joey Logano does to you. He is one of the toughest drivers to pass, especially when the championship is on the line and he proved his worth yet again.

Has Logano mastered the playoff format?

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Joey Lognao’s third championship has come when NASCAR fans are seemingly fed up with the playoff format. The #22 almost got eliminated in Round 12 but a fortunate disqualification for Alex Bowman booked Logano’s ticket to the next round. The ‘win and you’re in’ format worked out perfectly for him as he won the first race in the round of 8 at Las Vegas right after being on the brink of elimination to secure a spot in the Championship 4. Logano secured his sixth Championship 4 appearance since 2014! This is the most by anyone since the format was introduced. 

Logano fought through a quintuple overtime race at the Nashville Superspeedway to ensure that he could qualify for the playoffs while he made another statement victory at Atlanta in the first Round of 16 race. The three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion said, “For us, our advantage was that we got in sooner and we took those two weeks to really not do good at those two racetracks because we were focused in here. I guess, you know, looking back at it, there’s a reason why we won those three, and it seems like that’s the recipe to do it. It’s easy to say, hard to do”. Despite a strong playoff run with 3 wins in the last 1o races, Logano’s regular season was historically mediocre for a champion.

Joey Logano won the championship with the least number of Top 5 finishes and Top 10 finishes ever. However, he rubbished the claims that he was just lucky the format was this way and chirped back at his doubters, saying, “The advantage that the 5 (Kyle Larson) had, the 45 (Tyler Reddick) had, going into the playoffs–what else could you want? They earned the advantage…if you don’t make it from that, like oh well.” Tyler Reddick was the regular season champion and got extra playoff points while Kyle Larson boasted 6 wins in the season. Despite their consistency, they could not find a win when it mattered, and Logano feels like that is what differentiates him from them.

While it might not be the ‘traditional’ way to win a championship, Logano is just racing the format the way NASCAR has orchestrated it. And with three championships to his name, no one can say he isn’t playing it to perfection. Do you think NASCAR will tweak the playoff format?