Joey Logano’s string of bad luck continued in Las Vegas on Sunday. The defending Cup Series champion led for 40 laps and looked set to take the win before a frantic pit stop crushed his day. Josh Berry ended up winning the Pennzoil 400, prompting a journalist to highlight a statistic that demeaned Logano. Fans, however, came out in numbers to support the three-time champion.
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Toby Christie, the editor-in-chief of Racing America, wrote on X that Berry has more wins (1) in the 2025 Cup Series season than Logano has top-10s (0). The Team Penske driver finished 15th in Las Vegas, adding to his string of poor results this year, which includes P35 at Daytona and 24th place at COTA.
The fandom would usually jump in to troll Logano when something like this comes out. At least that’s what past instances have shown. However, this time around, the fans seemed frustrated with the way the media portrayed the performances of drivers.
“You do realize Joey has been good in all five races? Is 8th in points from stage points? Bad luck has bitten him a lot. It’s like media members don’t actually watch races. Keep pushing false narratives to give him a bad name, though. It’s what the media does to Joey,” replied one fan, while many others commented on similar lines.
One X user tried to highlight that the No. 22 Team Penske team operates on similar lines throughout the season. It performs mediocrely and kicks it up in the playoffs. That’s of course how Logano won the championship last year.
“I feel that the 22 team uses the first 26 races as practice because only 10 races really matter. And they excel in those 10. They have it figured out,” wrote the fan.
Completely real statistic, which feels made up. Josh Berry currently has more wins (1) in 2025 than defending series champion Joey Logano has top-10s (0) after the opening five races of the year. #NASCAR
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) March 16, 2025
“Joey did have an average finish of like 20th last year and was the champion… just saying,” commented another fan.
Logano could end up finishing outside the top 20 in most of the regular season races and still manage to win the title at the end of the season. That’s how he works. Or rather, that’s how the current playoff system works.
That said, he could have won in Vegas had it not been for terrible luck. He took the lead from Berry on Lap 236. Noah Gragson crashed into the wall on Lap 243 and brought out the caution. The No. 22 team’s pit crew messed things up completely in the subsequent pit stop, and Logano lost 19 spots because of it.
One fan pointed that out in his comment: “Joey could have easily won this race if, on the last stop, his crew didn’t fuck him like they did the whole day, plus there’s been some bad luck mixed in as well.”
Christie tried defending his post by stressing that he was only mentioning facts. However, not many were pleased with what they perceived as an outright personal attack.
