Bob Pockrass
FOX NASCAR Insider
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Each of the 4 Hendrick Motorsports drivers completed forward of Joey Logano within the common season standings.
So, seeing Logano win the NASCAR Cup Series title after a one-win common season needed to damage those that put collectively strong common seasons however didn’t match him at instances through the 10-race playoffs and positively Sunday within the finale of season on the Phoenix Circuit.
“Don’t get me began,” stated Jeff Gordon, a four-time Cup champion and vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, who received his 4 Cup titles below a standard full-season factors system.
Denny Hamlin, who completed seventh within the common season standings and nonetheless seeks his first Cup title, additionally did not contact on the subject of format.
“You guys are going to speak about all that stuff,” Hamlin stated. “It’s positively a loopy state of affairs. A wild trip.”
Those feedback had nothing to do with Joey Logano. It’s in regards to the matter that is been debated for the final 20 years about whether or not a sport that in most leagues depends on a full-season factors system ought to have a playoff-style format to deliver it extra according to different sports activities.
In NASCAR’s elimination format launched in 2014, no driver decrease than fifteenth within the common season standings had made it to the Championship 4, not to mention received the Cup title.
But there was Joey Logano celebrating his third Cup title on this format. He received three of 10 playoff video games after a daily season wherein he wanted 5 overtimes in Nashville to earn the win that earned him an automated playoff berth.
“For somebody to say this is not actual, that is a load of bullshit for my part,” Logano stated. “It’s unsuitable.”
FINAL LAPS: Joey Logano secures his third Cup Series title
NASCAR modified its playoff system in 2004 with the primary “Chase”, a system wherein drivers who superior to the playoffs would then be eligible for the title primarily based on factors earned within the remaining 10 races. That transfer got here after a season wherein Matt Kenseth received one race and clinched the title one race earlier than the season finale.
After 10 years of the Chase, NASCAR moved to a single-elimination, elimination-style format wherein three rounds of racing decide the champion. A win by a still-living driver robotically qualifies him for the subsequent spherical, and the others advance on factors below a system that permits them to hold bonus factors from one spherical to the subsequent primarily based on wins and common season performances.
Logano just isn’t the primary driver to really feel the ire of the followers for not having had a season worthy of a champion.
“The solely purpose they do not say this about different sports activities is as a result of they have not modified the playoff system,” Logano stated. “But the playoff system in different sports activities just isn’t a lot completely different from this.
“You can have an awesome common season. It makes you higher for the playoffs. That doesn’t suggest you are assured to make all of it the way in which to the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup Finals or the NBA Finals. It would not matter. It would possibly make it easier to.”
For three consecutive years, Team Penske drivers (Logano in 2022, Ryan Blaney in 2023 and Logano once more in 2024) have received the Cup title.
“This is one thing that everybody is aware of the foundations of when the season begins,” Logano stated. “We found out the best way to do it greatest and the best way to win. That’s what our group has been capable of do for the final three years.
“So I do not like individuals speaking like that, as a result of if the foundations have been the previous means, we might play in another way, would not we?”
This legitimate level has groups scratching their heads as to what Penske is doing to enhance its play a lot within the playoffs.
With the Next Gen automotive, the place NASCAR requires groups to buy most elements and items from sole suppliers, groups cannot develop one half and maintain it for the playoffs.
And with bonus factors awarded for performances within the common season, a group wouldn’t danger not incomes these factors that might assist them within the playoffs.
“It looks as if we’re doing an awesome job within the offseason when now we have time to essentially analyze all the info,” Jeff Gordon stated. “Our drivers and pit crew do an awesome job and we come out sturdy. You have to take care of that all year long.
“I really feel like we stepped up and did every part we may. But, regardless of the purpose, these guys have one thing extra to supply, particularly right here in Phoenix on this championship recreation. And it is our job to seek out and do the identical .”
In latest years the Hendrick groups have chased the Penske groups to Phoenix within the fall. SMT information – information displaying acceleration and braking – that groups have entry to for all vehicles signifies that the Penske vehicles are stronger.
“It’s motivating,” Gordon stated. “It’s going to infuriate us. … You can see on SMT the place their vehicles run a bit of higher occurring the accelerator and so they’re capable of keep it.”
Logano’s crew chief, Paul Wolfe, indicated that the group is targeted every week on racing properly and never completely on the ultimate 10 occasions.
“Have we been quick in lots of races this yr?” Wolfe stated. “No. But we revered the present format, and that is why we’re the champions. There are quite a lot of vehicles that have been quick at first of the season and that weren’t capable of present up when it mattered, and if that was the rationale strain or what it’s, I do not know.
“But as a group, we wish to run properly each week. We (additionally) know when it is time to carry out at our greatest and what it takes to arrange, and that is what we have been capable of do.”
The playoffs aren’t going anyplace. NASCAR officers made this abundantly clear throughout their State of NASCAR press convention on Friday.
“We will completely see what form the playoffs take within the offseason,” NASCAR chief working officer Steve Phelps stated. “You’re at all times studying, … however the playoffs in and of themselves, you’ll be able to’t argue with the standard of video games that the playoffs supplied.
“You can discuss in regards to the format if we do some various things, however we’ll completely preserve it.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He spent a long time protecting motorsports, together with greater than 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene journal and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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