NASCAR Conspiracy Theorists Having a Field Day With Joey Logano Playoff Run

• Online, some conspiracy theorists have written that at least some NASCAR officials couldn’t abide the possibility of the Championship 4 being an all-Hendrick Motorsports show.

• If Alex Bowman had not been disqualified a week earlier, he would have joined teammates Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, and William Byron still in championship contention.

• Logano played the fuel-mileage angle perfectly to earn one of four spots in NASCAR’s Nov. 10 championship-deciding finale near Phoenix.

The post-race experts and keyboard crew chiefs were in full song after Joey Logano won last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race in Las Vegas. As usual, they knew everything about everything, even more than the people they were fussing about.

It’s a tiresome practice that should be ignored. Unfortunately, it won’t be since so many conspiracy theorists and wannabe racers are among us. In hindsight, of course, it’s easy to second- and third-guess everything.

Logano’s heady victory in Vegas—he played the fuel-mileage angle perfectly—gave him one of four spots in NASCAR’s Nov. 10 championship-deciding finale near Phoenix. That’s a startling turnaround since he was initially ruled out of the Playoffs—by a single point!—following the Oct. 13 race on the Charlotte Roval.

But he got a reprieve when Alex Bowman was disqualified for being underweight post-race inspection. Instead of being first-out after the Round of 12, Logano slipped into the Round of 8 with seven other championship hopefuls. His Vegas victory means he’s locked into the Championship 4 regardless of what happens at Homestead this weekend and Nov. 3 at Martinsville.

His recent good fortunes have given conspiracy theorists plenty of ammunition. Anonymously and with no proof whatsoever, they’ve said officials advanced Logano into the Round of 8 to make amends for Richmond, where he lost an almost-certain victory when Austin Dillon wrecked him approaching the checkered.

Others have said those same officials couldn’t abide the possibility of the Championship 4 being an all-Hendrick Motorsports show. If Bowman had cleared, he would have joined teammates Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, and William Byron still in championship contention. Now, Byron and former champions Larson and Elliott will carry the HMS hopes.

Still others have claimed NASCAR didn’t want defending champion Ryan Blaney to be the only Ford driver trying to reach the Championship 4. Of course, payoffs from Ford and Team Penske to inspectors and officials have been suggested.

Nonsense to the Nth degree. All of it. Start to finish. Total hogwash.

But at least some fans have been intelligent enough to not blame Logano, crew chief Paul Wolfe, or team owner Roger Penske for how things came down. Even team owner Rick Hendrick said the disqualification of Bowman’s No. 48 was 100 percent on his people. (How his car was so underweight remains a mystery for those Monday morning experts and keyboard crew chiefs to figure out).

One chatroom-poster said if Logano wins his third Cup Series title (after 2014 and 2002) he won’t feel quite as good about this one as the others. Another said Logano “would never hear the end of it” if he became a three-time champion. But some correctly pointed out that Logano and his team had done absolutely nothing wrong to reach the Championship 4.

(We add this: for anyone to disrespect the No. 22 team’s year-long effort is shamefully inexcusable).

As it stands Logano is the only Playoff driver to reach the season-ending race six times since the Championship 4 format was created in 2014. Ironically, all six of them have come in even-numbered years: 2014, 2016, and 2018 at Homestead, and 2020, 2022, and now this year at Phoenix.

As always, he’s held up well under the recent bad news/good news/great news rollercoaster. Some have suggested that making the Championship 4 six times and winning two Cups may stamp him as the best driver in the past decade.

“You’ve got to roll with the punches,” Logano said after Vegas. “You’ve got to keep going. If you look at the first 10-15 races of this season its like, ‘oof, not good.’ But you keep going and keep getting back up. I ride the wave. When it’s down, I’m down; no doubt about that. But the get-back-up attitude is the most important thing. Just keep at it because you’re never out of it.”

And if anyone knows about that….