AVONDALE, Ariz. — Each of the four Hendrick Motorsports drivers finished ahead of Joey Logano in the regular-season standings.
So to see Logano win the NASCAR Cup Series title after a one-win regular season had to hurt those who put together solid regular seasons but couldn't match him at times during the 10-race playoffs and for sure Sunday in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway.
"Don't get me started," said four-time Cup champion and Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon, who won his four Cup titles under a traditional full-season points system.
Denny Hamlin, who finished seventh in the regular-season standings and still seeks his first Cup title, wasn't touching the format topic as well.
"You guys will talk about all that stuff," Hamlin said. "It's a crazy scenario for sure. A wild ride."
Those comments had nothing to do with Joey Logano. It's about the topic debated over the last 20 years on whether a sport that in most series relies on a full-season points system should have a playoff style format to make it more in line with other sports.
In NASCAR's elimination-style format introduced in 2014, no driver as low as 15th in the regular-season standings had even made it to the Championship 4, let alone win the Cup title.
But there was Joey Logano celebrating his third Cup title in this format. He won three of the 10 playoff races after a regular season where he needed a five-overtime finish at Nashville to get the win that earned him an automatic bid into the playoffs.
"For someone to say this isn't real, it's a bunch of bull**** in my opinion," Logano said. "That's wrong."
NASCAR changed its playoff system in 2004 with the first "Chase," a system where drivers who advanced to the playoffs would then be
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