Rounding up the NASCAR Cup: Logano wins in Arizona

Joey Logano took home his third NASCAR Cup Series title following a hard-fought victory over 312 laps at Phoenix Raceway, narrowly beating his teammate and the 2023 champion, Ryan Blaney. Logano’s championship victory has caused quite a controversy among fans, and has reignited the debate surrounding NASCAR’s flawed playoff system in which four drivers compete for the championship over one race at the end of the year.

Logano is undoubtedly talented, with Phoenix being his 36^th Cup Series victory, but has seen criticism by many fans and pundits due to his overall performance levels across 2024, in which he racked up only one win in the regular season. His average finish in this year's Cup Series was 17.6, making him the worst performing champion in history, or as some fans would say, Logano has once more become a “Mickey Mouse Champion”.

Logano’s Penske teammate, Ryan Blaney, was looking to become the first back-to-back Cup Series champion since NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson in 2010. Blaney ran Logano close at the finish, missing out by just 0.330 seconds. With such a narrow margin between victory and defeat, Blaney's duel with Kyle Larson earlier in the race may well have cost the 30-year-old a title.

William Byron came home in third place as the only Hendrick Motorsports driver in the final four. Whilst this year’s Daytona 500 Chevrolet Camaro showed decent pace, Byron was unable to stay with the Penske duo of Blaney and Logano, who were in a class of their own in the Arizona desert.

23XI racing fans, such as myself, left Phoenix disappointed as Tyler Reddick finished eighth. The California native was well off the pace set by the other three title contenders. NASCAR will have breathed a sigh of relief seeing Reddick drowning in the desert, with the organisation currently engaged in a lawsuit with 23XI racing over it's alleged monopolistic practices.

The race itself was relatively entertaining despite Phoenix Raceway often being criticised for producing dull contests. Blaney’s charge through the top ten in pursuit of teammate Logano made for tense viewing as the laps wound down, whereas Ty Gibbs decided he had had enough after just half a lap, smashing his car into the wall for a lap one caution. Zane Smith was the only other crash of the day, so long as you don't count the safety car; however, his spin was far less violent than Gibbs’s wreck.

Logano’s controversial title win has once again raised the question of whether or not NASCAR will ever be able to present itself as a real sport, or whether it will remain as ‘WWE on wheels’ as one fan put it. Bring on the 2025 season I suppose...