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.

Amid the confetti that adorned the desert backdrop of Sin City, fans realized that while a fun Cinderella story, Logano’s March Madness-esque run pokes plenty of holes in NASCAR’s case as to why the playoff crown legitimate champions.