Jeff Burton Is “Pissed off” Over Fans Discrediting Joey Logano’s Cup Title Wins

NASCAR legend Jeff Burton shared his thoughts on the disrespect over Joey Logano’s Cup championship under the new format.

Jeff Burton Is “Pissed off” Over Fans Discrediting Joey Logano’s Cup Title Wins

Jeff Burton and Joey Logano (Via athletespeakers.com and IMAGO)

🔍 Explore this post with:

ChatGPTPerplexityGrok AIGoogle AI

Since the start of the Next-Gen era, which made competition closer than ever, the criticism of the playoff format has intensified. Three times Bill France Cup winner Joey Logano has been the main target of many of the haters of the format. NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Jeff Burton isn’t a big fan of the Team Penske Racing veteran getting disrespected.

On his appearance in the latest episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Jeff Burton shared his thoughts on the playoff format debate. He pointed out that it’s time for NASCAR to listen to the fans, who has been calling for at least a change in format if going back to 36-race format isn’t possible. It’s wrong to overlook the feelings of the racing fandom.

I think the fact that in motorsports, there’s a core audience that says, ‘I don’t like the playoffs because it’s different.’ It’s not necessarily that it’s wrong, it’s just that it’s different. We should listen to them, we shouldn’t ignore them. We shouldn’t say you’re wrong, they feel that way for a reason. So, we should listen to them and understand why they think that.

Jeff Burton said via Door Bumper Clear podcast.

But at the same time, he does take issues with some of the criticism targeting the likes of reigning champion Joey Logano and not NASCAR that made the format, alongside the rules. The RCR legend admits he gets pissed off when he hears people discrediting the three championship wins of the No:22 Ford Mustang driver.

NASCAR’s got a decision they have to make and they’re going to make it. And whoever wins the championship, whatever the rules are, that’s the deserving champion. It p***es me off when somebody says Joey Logano didn’t win the championship — bullsh*t.

Jeff Burton asserted.

He pointed out that Joey Logano won championship, playing by the same rules as all of his fellow racers, even the ones that had faster cars than him. The ex-Michael Waltrip Racing driver asserted that the Team Penske driver shouldn’t get disrespected for the fact that he took advantage of the rules better than anyone else did.

Yeah, he won a championship. There was a set of rules, and they went out and did it better than anybody else. You may not like that they won a championship, I get it. But don’t take the credit away from them for what they did.

Jeff Burton added.

Jeff Burton defends his views highlighting faults of the legacy format

In the same conversation, Jeff Burton highlighted how the old full-season format has crowned champions that some may claim dents deserve the titles. Matt Kenseth won in 2003, winning just a single race or Benny Parsons won a title despite finishing on the lead lap just once in 1973.

Jeff Burton
Jeff Burton (Via nascar.com)

So, if the same standard of criticism is applied, these two legendary figures deserve to win the title less than Joey Logano. Any such comments would be more than disrespectful, as it should be as every champion of the sport earned it with their hard work.

And by the way, Matt Kenseth won the championship when he won one race. And Benny Parsons won the championship when he finished on the lead lap one time, he won that championship, too. I don’t want to hear that, that’s bullsh*t. You may not like it, but that’s how they crown the champion. And you shouldn’t be disrespectful to the people that win it.

Jeff Burton said.

The comments from the ex-racer shows everyone in the racing garage respect that champions regardless of under which format they won it, unless some of the fans. As Burton pointed out that, it was important to remind the racing fans Joey Logano shouldn’t be disrespected because was better than the rest under the new format.

Also Read: Kevin Harvick Exposes the “Fundamental Mistake” That Got Alex Bowman Eliminated from Playoffs