Death, taxes and even-year Joey Logano: NASCAR’s strangest streak continues

In most of those previous seasons, it didn’t seem like this was anything more than just a strange coincidence. Logano simply alternated “up” years with “down” years — he has usually worthy of competing for a title in the previous seasons he advanced to the championship round, while tending to perform at a lesser level in the seasons he didn’t.

In 2024, though, the only explanation for Logano’s playoff run is that he’s been working some dark voodoo magic behind the scenes. It all began at Nashville Superspeedway in June, when Logano was running 15th with only a handful of laps to go. A late caution came out, setting up extra laps for an overtime finish with most of the field running low on fuel. Four additional overtime periods later, Logano emerged victorious while running on fumes.

Entering that race, Logano was 14th in points and outside the playoff picture due to additional winners from behind him in the standings. Had it not been for that win, he would have missed the playoffs entirely. Instead, he became one of 16 drivers eligible to compete for the Cup Series championship beginning at Atlanta Motor Speedway in September. Logano then won at Atlanta, advancing him to the second round.

After that, things got weird. After having no problems advancing to the Round of 12, Logano finished 14th and 33rd in the first two races of that round and entered its finale at the Charlotte Roval behind the line to move through to the Round of Eight. When the checkered flag fell, he was still in the red, presumably eliminated from the playoffs. That is until it was announced that Alex Bowman had failed post-race inspection and had his result disqualified. Logano would live another day.

Still, he entered the Round of Eight last in points among the eight drivers who had advanced, with the seven others still alive being the top seven in the full-season standings. Logano, entering Las Vegas, was 15th. He was likely going to need either a win in the next three weeks or for chaos to eliminate at least four of his competitors.

On Sunday, he got both. A multi-car crash took out title hopefuls Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney while Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson both had to overcome pit-road issues throughout the afternoon. Logano, who ran solidly in the top-10 for most of the race, then decided to take a gamble on fuel mileage during the final stretch while most of the leaders made a last pit stop. It worked and he was able to hold off Christopher Bell for the win.

Logano, who is still only 15th in the season-long points standings, will be racing for a championship. He has six top-five finishes and 11 top-10s in 33 races in 2024. His average finish of 17.5 is his worst mark in that category since 2011. Two of his three wins have been on fuel mileage rather than speed. No matter how you slice it, it’s one of the weakest championship-round appearances of all-time.

Some will fault NASCAR’s playoff format for allowing such an anomaly to occur. But all you can really do is laugh. There aren’t many certainties in life, but at this point, the driver of the No. 22 competing for a Cup Series championship every other year feels like it’s mandated by the racing gods. He is inevitable; he is even-year Joey Logano.