Fans Scared of Joey Logano as NASCAR Community Predicts Another “Cinderella Championship”

Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano is making headlines again. He is set to achieve a historic milestone this Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway. At 35, he’ll become NASCAR’s youngest driver to reach 600 Cup Series starts. This impressive feat surpasses Richard Petty, who set the previous record in 1973. Logano will be nearly six months younger than Petty was at his 600th start, despite averaging five fewer races per season. This makes him only the second driver aged 35 or under to reach this mark. However, not only this, there is one more reason why Logano is being discussed on social media platforms. 

It’s about the way he turned a not-so-great regular season into a strong playoff run to win the championship, just as he did in 2024. If we look back, Joey Logano’s 2024 win surprised a lot of people. However, Logano, after winning the 2024 title, made it very clear when he said, “You don’t win three championships based on luck. I’ve always been Mr. Anti-luck, anti-superstitions. I always do the opposite of what people say you should do. And when people say good luck, I say, I don’t need it; there’s no such thing.”

He won the championship, but his regular season wasn’t great. His average finish was 17.1 — the lowest ever for a NASCAR champion. One big win early in the season changed everything for him. It was a wild race that went into five overtimes. That win got him into the playoffs. 

What’s the Joey Logano playoff enigma?

Critics argued his championship exposed flaws in NASCAR’s playoff format. After Logano’s 2024 championship, he famously addressed playoff criticism. “I’ve got a pretty sweet trophy right now. I’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.”

Logano consistently defends NASCAR’s playoff format. He also argued that, “The only reason why they don’t say this about other sports is because they didn’t change the playoff system.” He elaborated, stating, “It might help you. It’s the same way in NASCAR; the way we have the rules now is that you set yourself up much better.”

Now that Joey Logano’s 2025 season is unfolding. Veterans and fans see similarities to his 2024 championship. He has one win so far, a big victory at the Würth 400 at Texas in early May, securing his playoff spot early. However, his overall consistent performance is still a topic of conversation. As of mid-July (after 23 races), he has 5 top-5 finishes and 8 top-10 finishes.

And, to add to his performance this year, Logano’s been frustrated, especially after the last few races. So, in Chicago, Logano claimed that Chastain intentionally wrecked him. And, there’s been some back and forth as well.

“There are three sides to every story. One side of it was a lot louder this week,” Chastain said. 

“It obviously was intentional. He admitted it was intentional, which is obviously very frustrating from my point of view because he pulled the gun on the wrong person, right?” said Logano. 

Reddit users are observing that Joey Logano frequently wins championships despite inconsistent regular-season performance, often running outside the top 10. The post quickly sparked a flurry of fan reactions and debate.

Fans question Logano’s 10th-20th fixed spot 

A fan suggested, Logano’s team masterfully uses the ‘win-and-you ‘re-in’ rule. “That’s what this team does. They win a race, lock their spot in the playoffs, and then shift their focus to the last 10 races. That’s why they’ve won 2 of the last 3 championships.” Now, the fan clearly pointed out the Team Penske Strategy when he said, they just win one race in the regular season. Because if we look back at Ryan Blaney’s 2023 stats, Blaney only won 3 races in the entire season, and still won the championship. And, so did Logano in 2024. He only won 4 races,  not the most since Kyle Larson won 6. So, maybe the fan is right. 

One fan noted Joey Logano’s up-and-down 2024 season. “Even during his championship last year, 10th-20th is where he mostly ran and should have been eliminated in the RO12. Bowman’s DQ is what saved him there. Otherwise, he won the right races at the right time to win the Cup.” When the fan says he mostly ran 10-12th in 2024, Logano actually wasn’t a title contender, had it not been for his fuel strategy in Nashville. The luck turned upside down, as he only finished in the top 10 in 11 of the first 14 races, and was eliminated from the playoffs, until Alex Bowman’s car failed post-race inspection at the Charlotte Roval. 

Another comment pinpoints Joey Logano’s strength with the Next Gen car, noting his excellence on flat 1-mile ovals and superspeedways where he consistently contends for wins. “The flat 1-mile ovals and super speedways are where the 22 team tends to shine and contend for wins. Other than that, they are pretty average everywhere else, it seems. They’ve struggled on the intermediates and road courses with the Next Gen car. Oddly enough, the 12 seems to be very strong at most intermediate tracks, though.” Now, if we look at Logano’s stats on superspeedway, he has an average finish of 19.0, which is not that great. He has only one win at Talladega in the Cup Series, that too from 2018, and only one at the Daytona 500 in 2015. 

Fans also see Joey Logano’s strategy mirroring Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus’s past approach. “Chad Knaus said once they felt like they were going to make the chase, they switched to running R&D setups in the summer to try new things to get better. That is why the 48 always “struggled” in the summer. Then went on to win races at the end of the year.” 

A fan criticized NASCAR’s playoff system, stating it can make season-long excellence seem less important. “It’s going to bother me when he backs into his fourth championship, and people start talking about him as some kind of equal to Jeff Gordon just based on championship count.” We know Jeff Gordon has 4 championships, and while Logano is yet to score the 4th one, he is already among the NASCAR all-time elites as he holds the record for the most consecutive starts (600) in the Cup Series. 

Such criticism has even been voiced in the past. After Joey Logano won his 2024 championship, some big names in NASCAR spoke up about the playoff system. Jeff Gordon, a four-time champion from the old points era, just said, “Don’t get me started,” hinting at his strong feelings. Denny Hamlin, who still wants his first championship title, called the format a “crazy scenario” and a “wild ride.” Their comments highlighted the long-running debate about whether NASCAR’s current playoff style truly fits a sport traditionally focused on consistent, season-long performance.

After going through the winning pattern, do you think Logano could win again like last season, or do other names come to mind as more likely champions?