NASCAR President insists Joey Logano is the “deserving champion” amidst format criticism
The NASCAR President had come out fiercely defending the playoff format and the championship win of Joey Logano in 2024.
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Steve Phelps and Joey Logano (Via IMAGO)
The 2024 NASCAR Cup season saw Team Penske Racing No:22 team winning the championship the most Joey Logano way as possible. He had a tough regular season that saw him just winning one race and struggling to remain coexistent. But as the post-season started, he stepped and won races in all rounds except the R-12 to become the champion.
Joey Logano’s championship win wasn’t perceived well by many in the racing community owing the fact that he has some of the worst stats of any champions before him. They blamed the playoff format for the loss of drivers like Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell, who were the standouts of the season. Now the NASCAR president has come to the Ford veteran’s defense.
Steve Phelps recently told The Athletic that the No:22 team deserves to win the championship, just like the all four finale drivers. He highlighted how the three times champion won his way through the playoff, which he sees as among the most difficult in the world. The comments from Phelps was not only defending the champion, but the format as well.
Joey [Logano] performed. He went to Vegas and won and then went to Phoenix and won. So, to me, he’s a deserving champion. He ran the gauntlet of a very difficult, and arguably the most difficult playoffs in all sports. And he is a deserving champion because of that.
Steve Phelps told Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic.
Steve Phelps expected the criticism of the format
Earlier talking about the point, Steve Phelps pointed out that based on the playoff format NASCAR has all the drivers in the final-four deserved to be there. He went onto point out that he and everyone in the industry knew that it would be criticized if the statistical leaders failed to make it into the last round, when they introduced the format.
I would suggest based on the format, those four drivers truly deserve to be there. Win-and-you’re-in is really what we heard from fans, and that’s what the industry came up with when they came up with this format. And if you’re going to get four guys who are not the four highest statistical leaders, then you’re probably going to have some criticism.
Steve Phelps said.
The comments from Steve Phelps confirms many things, including the fact that the sanctioning body has no plan to make many massive tweaks on the system and enjoyed the results of it. It would be interesting to see if they would make any changes for the 2025 season.
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Justin P Joy
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