Roger Penske defends NASCAR Playoffs, Joey Logano championship

Following Joey Logano’s third championship at Phoenix this year, NASCAR fans were a bit upset. Roger Penske is defending his driver. For what it’s worth, Penske has now won three straight Cup Series championships.

Roger Penske has been around for many variations of the points system in NASCAR. Right now, his teams and drivers own the current system in the Next Gen car.

Say what you will, Team Penske has figured out the formula. Wins are great, you need them to get to Phoenix. But all that matters in the end is who gets to take home the Bill France Cup.

Roger Penske spoke to the media ahead of tonight’s NASCAR Awards.

“Well, I would say this, that we all sign up for a points system at the beginning of the year, didn’t we, and that’s what we operate on,” Penske said when asked about the points system by Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “We’ve been around when there’s been changes many different times, and I think we’ll let NASCAR take that one on if they think they need changing, fine.

“I guess when someone says you win three in a row you’ve got to change something or Joey – remember Logano, including the All-Star Race, had a tremendous season and we won 42% of the races, the team did, including after the All-Star Race at the end of the season. People can say what they want about the system, we have a winner in the Shell Pennzoil car, our driver Logano and second-place finisher was Blaney. So, I guess we figured it out.”

Roger Penske racked up a lot of wins in second half of season

To his credit, Roger Penske’s drivers, including Harrison Burton of the Wood Brothers, won 10 of the final 24 races of the season (including the All-Star Race). Joey Logano had five wins, Ryan Blaney had three, Austin Cindric and Burton each had a win each as well.

Team Penske has built a great program. They essentially field four cars with the Wood Brothers as part of that ecosystem. They arguably made a huge upgrade by putting Josh Berry in the 21 car for next season.

Let’s not act like Rick Ware Racing or Spire Motorsports snuck into the playoffs and won a championship. Joey Logano is a former champion, twice before. He races for Team Penske, a top organization. He also won the second most races, trailing only Kyle Larson.

Roger Penske should defend his driver. What else is he going to do? But don’t take that biased opinion for one that is without merit. The entire Penske organization saw victory lane this season and look poised to keep finding success in the NASCAR Playoffs as it stands.