36xRacing

Joey Logano won this week at Las Vegas and I mean,, what else did you expect? It’s an even numbered year, the 22 car will be in the championship four. (A decade of doing that is actually nuts,, like, what?)

I see a lot of comments online (as much as I tell myself I’m getting off social media) knocking Logano’s ability to show up in the playoffs as something wrong with the format. I choose to see the late season wins as more of a clutch factor that other teams struggle to tap into.

Team Penske knows which races pay the bills and boy do they show up. Is it in the way they race prep or simply better in-race management, understanding where they are in the playoff standings. Penske appears to understand the playoff stage unlike any other organization.

I wanted to do a quick check/count on how the active drivers have their wins spread across a season. As expected, Logano is strong in the final quarter of the year.

Something else to note here is that the final quarter leader has the fewest wins of the other quarters… does that make sense? Busch 21 and 17, Hamlin 17,,, Logano 13…

I’m going to choose to call this the Jimmie Johnson effect… Busch and Hamlin seem to have lost those final quarter of the season wins to Johnson and that 48 car…? Would love to hear more theories in the replies/comments. Let me know.

This may turn into a proper offseason project and a deeper dive once the wins are final for this season (especially if Logano (or Blaney…) wins the title…).

Just thought I’d share my findings this Monday morning. Thanks for visiting the website!