Joey Logano has advanced to the Championship 4 yet again. Thus far in the 2024 season, he has six top-five finishes — half of which are wins — and only 11 top 10s in 32 races. Furthermore, he advanced to the Round of 8 only after Alex Bowman was disqualified for a post-race failure in tech inspection.
Logano will now compete for the NASCAR Cup Series championship. Yet, statistically, he arguably is not the most deserving. So, does this playoff format still hold legitimacy, or are some changes in order? Mark Kristl and Wyatt Watson debate that in this week’s 2-Headed Monster.
Playing the Game by the Current Rules
First, whether we like it or not, this is the way NASCAR determines its champions — via a playoff system with a winner-take-all “Game 7” race. Cue the old “crying over spilled milk” phrase.
I’ve watched racing when there were no playoffs, and now with the different playoff formats. The playoffs add hype to many racetracks. Otherwise, would anyone pay attention to the fall race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, or most of the fall races, when NASCAR competes on Sundays alongside the NFL?
Logano punched his ticket to the Championship 4 thanks to his win at Las Vegas. Statistics be damned, he’s made it there when others such as former champions Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski were unable to do so. You don’t just luck your way into the championship event in any sport.
Logano won thanks to a fuel strategy. Everyone else had the same opportunity to do so. Dominant driver Christopher Bell opted not to do so and wound up one spot short of victory lane. Does it sting for Bell? Yes. Would he have won if he chose the same strategy as Logano? Maybe; we’ll never know.
Not every sport crowns its champion in a winner-take-all event. Some sports, like the MLB, have best-of-seven series. Yet the World Series champion often does not have the best regular-season record. As a Chicago Cubs fan, I remember when the St. Louis Cardinals won the 2006 World Series despite an 83-78 regular season record. Five games over 0.500 throughout the season only to ride an incredible hot streak to winning it all — in five games, to boot.
Was the Cardinals’ championship legitimate? Yes.
How about in sports with a single winner-take-all event, such as the NFL? David Tyree of the New York Giants made an amazing catch to prevent the New England Patriots from a complete perfect season as they lost to the Giants…
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