Joey Logano calls out critics of NASCAR Cup Series championship win: 'Kiss my a**'

Joey Logano has seen and heard it all when it comes to his NASCAR Cup Series championship win this season, the third of his career.

“Not a true champion,” and “Mickey Mouse” are just a couple of things fired Logano’s way in the aftermath of his victory in the season finale at Phoenix. Despite winning four races, three coming during the 10-race postseason, Logano finished the season with an average finish of 17.1, the worst of any driver in a championship-winning season. The legitimacy of both Logano’s championship, as well as the playoff system, has come into question as a result.

But at this point, Logano doesn’t give much of a you know what. Speaking with Kenny Wallace on the latest “Kenny Conversation,” Logano called out his critics, telling them to “kiss my a**.”

The “@Kenny_Wallace Conversation” with @joeylogano is up now on YouTube!

The now 3-time #nascar cup champ told some awesome stories & defended his title vs some of the online “haters” pic.twitter.com/E4S6l2tnPw

— The Kenny Wallace Show (@KWallaceShow) November 27, 2024

Joey Logano sounds off on those questioning legitimacy of NASCAR Cup Series championship

“The playoffs are here because everyone complained about it being a full season for one and it wasn’t exciting enough,” Logano said. “… Now, we got a system which I think is like freaking awesome. I love it. As a race fan, it is intense, it is pressure packed, it is do or die, people are willing to do the craziest things to try to win and we’re gonna complain about that now too? C’mon guys. I don’t really know how to explain how frustrated I get when I hear some of the stuff. I’m on social media, I see it — not a true champion, Mickey Mouse all this stuff — bottom line is we won three of the last 10 races. Pretty solid. We had five wins on the season, I kind of count Richmond a little bit even though we didn’t win but that was pretty dang close. The guy that wrecked me didn’t win the race either, so I don’t know.

“I look at that like that’s almost a six-win season. That’s solid. To say we’re not a true champion, you better get checked out. We showed up when it mattered the most and that is the same as any other playoff system in any other sport. … You can have a great regular season, and it will set you up better for the playoffs. It definitely does, there’s no doubt. Win the regular season championship, you get 15 points. You win more races, you get five each one. You win a stage, you get one point.

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“All of that matters a lot because there’s a three-race series. Those guys showed up. The 45 [Tyler Reddick], the 5 [Kyle Larson], the 11 [Denny Hamlin] — those guys showed up with like 30 more points than me in every round. We had to overcome that. We started behind all of them. The facts are that they didn’t have a good playoff. If they didn’t have those playoff points, they’re not getting to the Round of 8. The 45 barely made it in at the Roval. If he didn’t have the playoff points, he’s not in.

“So, my point is, it helped them get all the way to the Championship 4 when they did not have a solid nine races before that at all. We beat all of them, pretty much. I’m not taking anything away from them, but my point is the regular season matters so much, and we had to play behind the eight ball the whole time. We still had the opportunity to win the championship even though we didn’t have a great regular season. But we got hot when it mattered, we won the races that mattered and we won the championship because of that. And if you don’t like that, you can kiss my a**. That’s how I feel about it.”

Logano has simply mastered the elimination style playoff format, adopted back in 2014. He joined elite company with his latest triumph, becoming just the 10th driver to win three or more Cup Series championships.