IMPORTANT UPDATE: Things happen fast in NASCAR, and the following story portray's Logano's emotions immediately following the checkered flag. Since then, Alex Bowman failed post-race technical inspection, which eliminates him from the playoffs and puts Logano back in.
Joey Logano has made the Championship 4 every other year since the format's inception in 2014, but that odd statistic ends this year: he was eliminated from the playoffs by four points in Charlotte.
Those four points were of a certain significance to Logano. When Austin Dillon ran him over (and Denny Hamlin moments later) for the Richmond win this past summer, Logano wasn't just denied a checkered flag. Every race win rewards five bonus points that drivers carry with them throughout the entire playoffs. The math is pretty clear on how that win would have changed things for Logano.
The move Dillon pulled was so egregious that NASCAR removed him from the playoffs, but the damage from it is still being felt by the drivers involved weeks later.
“Yeah, we fought hard for sure," said Logano, who finished eighth at the Roval. "[Crew chief] Paul [Wolfe] and the guys did a good job executing the strategy of what we needed to do today. We just didn’t get quite enough at the end there. We fell off a little too much that last run. Honestly, the 45 [Tyler Reddick] and those guys did a good job driving up through the field and scored more points.
"It is hard not to think about Richmond a little bit right now. I guess the positive of it is that we are still in the owners championship, so we can confuse all the fans from here on out about drivers and owners championships. The money is in the owners' (championship), so we will keep fighting for the money.”
Still another title to fight for
That's right, Logano's playoffs are over but the No. 22 Team Penske Ford isn't quite done. When Kyle Larson missed the Coke 600 after running the Indianapolis 500, that ended up costing him the regular season title to Reddick. Since the car still ran the 600 with Justin Allgaier behind the wheel, it scored enough points to win the regular season title for Hendrick Motorsports while Reddick won it in drivers.
Therefore, the bonus points awarded varied between the owner's and driver's playoffs, allowing the No. 22 Penske Ford to squeak into the next round but the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota did not. While the glory and spectacle sits with the driver's title, all of the payouts at the end of the season stem from the owner's standings.
As the laps ticked away at the Roval, Logano described a feeling of helplessness as Reddick charged through the field on fresher tires while he tried in futility to hold back a couple of road course aces.
“[Fresh] tires were coming behind you with two of the best with AJ [Allmendinger] and Shane [van Gisbergen] coming at me," said Logano. "I was just trying to maintain the best you can and honestly was praying for a caution because that was the only thing that could stir it up enough to where a lot of what-ifs can happen. Congrats to them [Reddick]. They fought hard, changing toe links and all that and were still able to make it. It just wasn’t meant to be. You can start looking back at different points in the season to gather four points pretty easily. One race in particular."
