The championship weekend at Phoenix included a non-contender (Christopher Bell) saying he was cheated out of a chance.

News that one actual contender (Tyler Reddick) may or may not have a car available for the Daytona 500, depending on courtroom results.

We even had the pace car crashing at the end of a caution and, yep, bringing out another caution.

But everything returned to form at the very end, when another Next Gen short(ish)-track race saw the leader keep on leading because the guy behind him couldn’t make a pass.

Well, that’s one way of looking at it. Or it could be as Ryan Blaney kinda-sorta said: He used up too much of his car closing the late-race gap and just didn’t have enough horses (or gumption, maybe) to get a little rough with teammate Joey Logano and send them both into the fence.

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Whatever, Joey is the newest three-time Cup champ, and definitely the first whose third championship wasn’t won with season-long consistency but, instead, impeccable timing and one helluva break at the scales.

First Gear: Mr. October (and November), Joey Logano

When NASCAR went to a playoff format in 2004, then tweaked it and tweaked it again (and again) and eventually landed with this one, the suits seemed to suggest they wanted to see exactly what we just saw, which is something you occasionally see in other sports — a guy and/or team scratching into the playoffs and then getting hot at the right time(s) and eventually bathing in champagne.

"Game 7 moments," they called it.

Logano ended the 26-race regular season 15th in points, and not with momentum. He’d been finishing 30th or worse more often than top-10 in the weeks leading to the postseason. But even Reggie Jackson entered a couple of Octobers in a bad slump (call it a hunch, please don’t look it up!).

All Logano did was win the playoff opener at Atlanta. But since Atlanta is now a “plate-race” where practically anyone can win, Logano’s playoff stock still didn’t skyrocket. And with good reason, because once into the Round of 12, the magic didn’t return and he raced himself out of the playoffs …

Until Alex Bowman’s car failed to make minimum weight at Martinsville. We all know what happened next — an immediate win to open the Round of 8, a little cruise control, then one final bat-outta-hell dash on the last restart at Phoenix.

A reputation is born. Or cemented.

Second Gear: Angry Christopher Bell, uncommitted Denny Hamlin

Before forgetting, let’s clear up a couple of items mentioned at the top.

Yes, Christopher Bell opened up about his Martinsville penalty, which came after he hugged the wall to complete a needed pass on the final lap. The penalty sent William Byron in the “final four” at Phoenix, even though Byron was also aided by Martinsville shenanigans (a naval blockade by a couple of fellow Chevy drivers).

“I feel cheated out of the chance to compete for a championship and it all started whenever the race got fixed and manipulated by Chevrolet,” Bell said at Phoenix.

As for Reddick and next season, his 23XI team lost an opening round in the ongoing court case with NASCAR. The team hoped to keep its two charters (and guaranteed starting spots) while the case continues, but lost the legal argument last week.

That had Denny Hamlin, who co-owns the team with Michael Jordan and Curtis Polk, slapping a big TBD (to be determined) on the team’s near-immediate future.

Is there a real potential of going into next season without the four teams owned by 23XI and Front Row Motorsports, or is it just some theatrical posturing by a plaintiff?

That, too, is TBD.

Third Gear: Captain Crunch-time, Roger Penske

As if he’s not up to his eyeballs in such things, toss a kudo or two toward Roger Penske, whose gold-standard race team won its third straight Cup Series championship. It’s just one more ornament in a highly decorated year that almost was a disaster.

Off the truck, Penske’s squad won the Rolex 24 at Daytona, but several weeks later, the IndyCar season started with a cheating controversy that dented Roger’s platinum reputation within the industry (his IndyCar teams illegally used some in-car software to help themselves at the St. Pete Grand Prix).

Seems like eons ago. Along with the Cup title, Team Penske also won the Indy 500, IMSA’s WeatherTech championship and Europe’s World Endurance Championship. That’s now 47 overall championships for the 87-year-old Cap’n.

Fourth Gear: Bobby Allison, RIP

Penske started dabbling in NASCAR in 1972 and first won with Mark Donohue. He’s since won NASCAR Cup races with nine other drivers, including Bobby Allison, who collected four of his 85 career wins in a Penske-owned Matador (1974-75) — who remembers that red, white and blue beauty?

Allison, leading man of racing’s famed Alabama Gang, died this past weekend at 86.

Bobby’s relentless determination and toughness, combined with a gentlemanly off-track demeanor, are hallmarks of his legacy.

But so is his unworldly perseverance, which was forced upon him when he buried sons Clifford and Davey, and fought a long recovery after his own career-ending crash in 1988, four months after winning his fourth Daytona 500, at age 50.

“A real racer,” Penske called him, while adding, “he was tough, he was smart, and he knew what to do behind the wheel of a race car.”

Too many from that era are going behind the wall. Cling tight to those who remain.

— Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR: Joey Logano gets hot and lucky; Roger Penske rolls on