It has been over two months since Joey Logano won his third Cup Series championship. But the fans don’t appear to have forgiven him for what they believe was an unfair crowning. NASCAR recently shared a post on X that celebrated Logano’s title, triggering a barrage of criticism.
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The original post was put up by Team Penske, carrying pictures of Logano showing off his three Cup Series trophies. NASCAR re-shared the post with the caption, “Three is better than two”.
One fan seethed in the comments section, saying that the sanctioning body wants everyone to forget that it manipulated the points system to disqualify Alex Bowman in Charlotte. The disqualification came about when Bowman’s car was found underweight in the post-race inspection. This led to Logano avoiding elimination in the playoffs.
The fan added: “17 lbs too light …the crime didn’t fit the punishment… Logano will always be the 2024 illegitimate champion.”
Nascar wants you to forget they manipulated the points system by disqualifying Alex bowman, which let lagano in after he was eliminated…17 lbs too light …the crime didn’t fit the punishment…logano will always be the 2024 illegitimate champion.
— Clyde (@wrathaway88) January 9, 2025
Another fan added, “We’ve got to change up the current playoff model. I’m not a Larson fan by any stretch, but there is no reason Logano should have more than Larson.”
These words reflect the larger opinion in the NASCAR world — fans, insiders, and drivers have all spoken on similar lines since the finale in Phoenix.
Kyle Larson dominated the entire 2024 season only to bow out at the very end. This showcases the glaring issue with the current playoff system. Another comment highlighted this: “Finished outside the top 10 more than TWENTY times last season. Not a ‘champion’.”
Most unserious NASCAR Cup champion
— ⁶*⁹² (@Jeff69cpl) January 9, 2025
Yes, Logano did underperform for the majority of the season. However, a good share of luck along with the intricacies of the playoff format aided him in staging a comeback in the final moments of the playoffs.
One fan believes that celebrating a champion whom the fanbase doesn’t stand behind is what has led to NASCAR’s decrease in popularity.
“Embarrassing. The fact that you keep propping him up just shows why more favs continue to hit the exit.”
Such reactions and criticisms have been marring Logano’s legitimacy from the moment he laid his hands on the silverware. However, he has been defending against them well.
Logano stated in multiple interviews that he only played by the rules that were given to him and that he could not be criticized for that. In November, Logano told Kenny Wallace,
“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.”
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
NASCAR, on its part, took the lashes from fans seriously and promised that it would look into making changes to the format. There has been no update on when those changes will come or if they will at all.
