Joey Logano: NASCAR playoff format is 'fine'

Joey Logano is perhaps now the most criticized NASCAR Cup Series champion in the modern era after claiming his third title. Perhaps it is less Logano who is facing criticism but the playoff system itself.

Last Sunday Joey Logano joined nine other drivers in NASCAR history to become three-time champions. But the talk has been all about the system and the change that NASCAR has to make.

You have to feel for Joey a bit. He just won three of the final ten races of the season to clinch the championship from an underdog position and everybody wants to talk about why he didn’t deserve it.

Logano went on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour and talked about the playoff format.

“I think it’s fine. I think it’s good. And I know I’m the minority of this and they’re probably saying too, ‘You just won the championship and you didn’t have the best regular season, of course, you’re on this side.’ I get it. But think about it from other sports’ perspectives. If you’re in the NFL, you can win every, go undefeated into the playoffs. It’s going to help you get seeded, but you could still lose the first game and you’re out. So, does that mean if you win the regular season you should just be locked to race for a championship? I don’t think so.

“Should you get an advantage? Yes, you should. It is a large advantage there. Overcoming 15 points and the amount of wins that most likely the regular season champion has, to overcome that in three races, is really hard to do. In our position, we came in with, you know, virtually not many, not many points. We don’t have a mulligan. Especially in the first two rounds, they can have a bad race and then just be equal to me. So they earned an amazing advantage and it is there. After that, that’s just the way the rules are. We all know what they are going into the season. I think the playoffs added a lot of storylines, it’s a lot of drama. It’s exciting.”

Joey Logano is a three-time champ. That won’t change. In a decade or more, we won’t be concerned with the format. How he did it. All that will matter are those three trophies on his record.