Logano, Penske enter new realm of history with 2024 Cup title

AVONDALE, Ariz. — By winning the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series championship, Joey Logano and Team Penske entered a new realm of history.

Logano and Penske clinched the championship with a win in Sunday’s race at Phoenix Raceway. For Logano, it’s his third Cup Series championship, making him the 10th driver to win three or more championships in the 76-year history of the series:

• Richard Petty – 7
• Dale Earnhardt – 7
• Jimmie Johnson – 7
• Jeff Gordon – 4
• Cale Yarborough – 3
• David Pearson – 3
• Darrell Waltrip – 3
• Lee Petty – 3
• Tony Stewart – 3

Logano is also the first driver to reach three Cup championships since Jimmie Johnson won his third in 2008. At age 34, Logano is the fifth driver to win three or more Cup titles under age 35:

• Jimmie Johnson: 5
• Jeff Gordon: 4
• Richard Petty: 4
• Joey Logano: 3
• David Pearson: 3

Gordon himself acknowledged Logano’s feat Sunday but from the perspective of being the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, especially as this is Team Penske’s third NASCAR Cup Series championship in a row.

“These guys are on fire and they clearly have this figured out with the NextGen car here at Phoenix once they get here. It showed up in practice. We kind of knew going in,” Gordon said. “I think about how Ford were running earlier in the season and now here they are dominating. We got to figure out where we can find more… And we’ll be motivated by this talk.”

Gordon’s boss, Rick Hendrick, and Junior Johnson are the only other owners who have won three or more Cup championships in series history:

Junior Johnson

• 1976-78 with Cale Yarborough

Rick Hendrick

• 1995-98 with Jeff Gordon (1995, ’97-98) and Terry Labonte (’96)
• 2006-10 with Jimmie Johnson

Penske has done it all, from sports car racing to open-wheel racing to stock-car racing — anything with four wheels — and accomplished a lot in life. NASCAR is a big part of his legacy, especially recently as a team owner. As an owner, Penske now has five NASCAR Cup Series championships, all in the last 13 seasons, dating back to Brad Keselowski’s 2012 triumph. Even just since 2018, Penske power has won four of the last seven championships in the series.

The final nail in the coffin for their competitors is Ryan Blaney finishing second in points behind Logano.

This season marked the first time that a single organization swept the top two spots in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings since Joe Gibbs Racing with Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. in 2019. In fact, this feat has only been done three other times in the last 40 Cup seasons:

• 2009: Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon
• 2007: Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon
• 1996: Terry Labonte, Jeff Gordon

As long as a Penske driver makes their way to the Championship 4, with the championship race at Phoenix Raceway, you can bank on who will be the captain of victory lane after 312 laps.

Stat for the road: Joey Logano finished the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season with an average of 17.1 — the worst of all-time for a Cup champion. The previous worst was 14.1, set by Ryan Blaney last year.

Analysis: While some may criticize the relatively poor average finish that Logano amassed this year, it reflects how the ingredients of a championship have changed. Logano and the No. 22 Team Penske team earned the title with the format that everyone had. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.