It is stunning to assume NASCAR’s playoff format has been round for 20 years. Its Chase for the Cup, the unique ‘new’ playoff format, kicked off in 2004. In its first three years, it produced three champions from three totally different organizations. It appeared to be engaging in precisely what NASCAR supposed it to do, conserving the title battle fascinating to the very finish. After which got here alongside Jimmie Johnson, Chad Knaus, and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports crew to smash their hopes into 1,000,000 Lowe’s-colored items.
NASCAR has at all times been eager to tweak the format, and are available 2014, the sequence’ full overhaul surprised the racing world. The brand new, multi-round elimination format would hopefully guarantee no single driver might ever recreation the system like that once more. Besides, after Joey Logano’s third title win in Phoenix, together with Group Penske clinching a 3rd consecutive Cup title, it’s important to surprise if perhaps they’d efficiently completed NASCAR’s nightmare: Cracking the code to profitable the playoff recreation because the No. 48 as soon as did.
Championship victory lane: NASCAR Dash Cup Collection 2010 champion Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorspor
Picture by: Motorsport.com / ASP Inc.
Consider it this fashion, Logano is that this format’s Jimmie Johnson. Now, stick with me as a result of I am not saying Logano has had Johnson-esque seasons. However he’s the one driver to win three titles on this format, amassing three of the final seven Cup championships. After final weekend’s 1-2, Penske has now gained three consecutive which hasn’t been finished because the Johnson period. Clearly, it isn’t the 5 years of dominance the Johnson/Knaus loved, however it’s nonetheless fairly the feat for a format designed to make sure any kind of dominance or constant profitable is prevented. But, no driver has made extra remaining 4 appearances than Logano.
A have a look at the years the place Logano has gained reveals a standard pattern: Each single time he gained the Cup, he at all times gained the primary race within the Spherical of 8 too. Logano superior on by shoving Martin Truex Jr. out of the way in which to win Martinsville in 2018, out-dueled Ross Chastain at Vegas in 2022, and bested everybody in a fuel-mileage race at Vegas in 2024. For the 2 weeks that adopted these vital race wins, his crew centered solely on the finale, sufficient that he normally ran terribly on the races in between. But he’d then go on to win the finale and title. He by no means gained greater than two races through the 26-race common season of any of those title runs both, however he did win when it mattered most.
Beware the 48…and now the 22?
When the Chase for the Cup kicked off annually, everybody knew that they needed to settle for Johnson and the No. 48’s eventual success. It would not (and did not) matter what kind of season they’d as much as that time. Johnson and crew at all times discovered a method in by these remaining ten races. Hell, he even managed to win a pair extra titles as NASCAR modified the format round on him, together with his record-tying seventh title within the Championship 4 period. That really can be the primary time Johnson had ever gained at Homestead, as a result of in all the years earlier than that, he by no means wanted to (factors racing was nonetheless a vital a part of the previous playoff format). Like Logano, he did precisely what he wanted to do, when he wanted to do it, and benefited vastly due to it.
These groups mainly used the primary 26 race weeks to organize and ideal their automobiles for the races that really mattered. Simply have a look at Logano earlier within the 12 months. His crew at all times appeared to be figuring issues out and stumbling over themselves firstly of those seasons that lead into title wins. In 2024, he had only one top-five end within the first 14 races. In 2022, Logano was a 3rd of the way in which by the season earlier than he even gained a race. In 2018, it was the identical story once more, with a single superspeedway victory through the entirety of the common season.
Logano’s constant method of profitable — when he wanted to — is extraordinarily paying homage to the Hendrick No. 48 of the late 2000s. Once more, Logano is not dominating like Johnson did, however that is not what this explicit format calls for. We’re a format the place you possibly can technically win the Daytona 500, DNF the following 25 races, then proceed to bounce by every spherical on the again of race wins and seize the massive prize.
If you may make the playoffs and survive the primary two rounds, you are just one win away from being inside attain of the crown. It is irritating to many as Logano is taking largely common seasons, like his 17.1 common end this 12 months, the lowest-ever for a championship-winning driver, and turning them into gold, however he is merely gaming the system higher than these round them, identical to the No. 48 of previous.
Ryan Blaney, Group Penske, Menards/Richmond Water Heaters Ford Mustang and Joey Logano, Group Penske, Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang
Picture by: Nigel Kinrade / NKP / Motorsport Pictures
And this had bled over to his Penske teammate Ryan Blaney, who earned just one common season win in 2023 and two in 2024 earlier than amassing playoff wins on the most crucial moments — together with the Spherical of 8. The place Blaney differs from Logano is that he tends to win the closing race of that penultimate spherical as a substitute of the opener.
On the flip facet, and what makes the 2 totally different, is almost all of Johnson’s wins throughout that five-year run had been earned through the common season. Why? As a result of — and I do know I am repeating myself however I need to emphasize this — that is what the format demanded. The ultimate ten races labored as a kind of a mini-season with probably the most factors over these ten weeks serving as the trail in direction of the title. There have been nonetheless bonus factors, however they got here from wins through the common season, so that is what he did whereas remaining constant within the finals stretch.
Whereas nonetheless a power of nature within the postseason, 22 of Johnson’s 35 wins between 2006 and 2010 got here through the common season. He solely went out to win a bunch of playoff races when he could not shake his rivals. For instance, in 2007, he was trailing Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon midway by the postseason, so like flipping a swap, Johnson proceeded to win 4 of the final 5 races, crushing the hopes of his fellow Corridor of Famer.
Joey Logano, Group Penske, Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang, winner, Burn Out
Picture by: Gavin Baker / NKP / Motorsport Pictures
As for Logano, he wasn’t at all times like this. Wanting on the strongest season of his profession (2015), he completed sixth in factors. That 12 months, he appeared to go 100% in each single playoff race whether or not he was locked into the following spherical or not. He ended up sweeping a whole spherical, which has by no means been finished by anybody else on this format (though Larson did win three in a row throughout two rounds in 2021).
However Logano did not make it to the Championship 4 that 12 months as a result of in his quest to win it doesn’t matter what, he drew the ire of Matt Kenseth by spinning him out within the battle for the win. Kenseth took revenge at Martinsville whereas Logano was main, sinking his 2015 title bid. Possibly he realized one thing from that, as what we’re seeing now’s a much more decisive Logano who’s aggressive, however solely when it issues. Maybe Kenseth did him a favor that day, serving to to form the three-time champion we now know.
The Chase for the Cup had Johnson and folks hated it as a result of he was too dominant. The elimination format right now has Logano, however folks hate it as a result of he isn’t dominant sufficient through the 12 months. When NASCAR used a season-long format, folks hated {that a} driver [Kenseth] with a single win in March might level their technique to the title. Regardless of the system, somebody goes to determine it out methods to hack it and reap the benefits of that chance. That is simply how it’s. Logano and Group Penske collectively seem to have harvested that energy. We’ll see in the event that they proceed to place it to make use of for one more title in 2025.
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