Joey Logano truly stole a race win Sunday at Las Vegas with a huge roll of the dice late in the running.
While most of the frontrunners pitted for fuel under green, he was among a small contingent that stayed out and tried to stretch his fuel to the finish. Daniel Suarez led the drivers on the fuel-save strategy, but with some help from Penske teammate Ryan Blaney, Logano snatched the top spot away in the closing laps.
Running on fumes, Logano held on against a charging Christopher Bell to win the race and lock himself into the Championship 4 — something he has done every other year since the format’s debut in 2014. The last time time he won the fall race at Vegas, he went on to win the title as well (2022).
“Oh my gosh,” laughed Logano. “What an incredible turn of events here the last week. We had a fast Mustang … Hey to my kids at home. I wish you were out here, but we’re going to the Championship 4 again! I don’t know what the deal is with the even-year thing…but maybe it’s real.”
He credited his crew chief Paul Wolfe with a “great call” as he recalled the final laps of the race. “Everybody does a good job feeding me the info I needed. You have to go the right pace to make sure you get in front of the No. 99 [Suarez] but not get to where the No. 20 [Bell] was going to catch me. Just an incredible day. It takes the whole team to do the fuel-mileage stuff. It’s not just the engineer, or the driver, or the spotter — it takes all of us together to do it. Total team win. We may not have been the fastest car today, but we were a solid top-five car and were able to maximize it at the end.”
It’s been a dramatic week for Logano, was eliminated from the playoffs last weekend at the Roval, only to be reinstated after Alex Bowman’s disqualification. Now, he has the opportunity to become the first three-time NASCAR Cup champion under this knockout format.
Bell, who dominated the race before fuel became a factor, appeared shocked after the race. He leaves Vegas with a 42-point margin over the cut-line, but only Logano is locked in.
“I don’t know…and I don’t think I’ve come to terms yet,” said Bell, who led 155 of 267 laps. “Just a bummer. I think everyone on this team did everything perfect … did everything we needed to to put this Camry in Victory Lane and unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.”
Watch: Bell: ‘Nothing is a guarantee’ after falling short of Vegas win
Suarez ended up finishing third, William Byron fourth, and Alex Bowman fifth. Martin Truex Jr. was sixth, Ross Chastain seventh, Denny Hamlin eighth, John-Hunter Nemechek ninth, and Chris Buescher tenth.
Reddick’s wild ride
Tyler Reddick won the opening stage, but minutes later, he became the first driver to flip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a NASCAR stock car since 2000. In a bizarre crash, he collided with Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski with all three spinning down into the infield. Reddick’s car dug in and rolled completely over before landing back on its wheels, ending his race.
Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing, Jordan Brand Toyota Camry flip car
Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images
The Team Penske duo of Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric were also involved in the incident. Blaney and Elliott were the only drivers with damage who were able to continue, but they were both multiple laps down after repairs.
Bell won the second stage after battling Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Truex In the final stage, a spirited battle for the free pass broke out between Kyle Larson, who was trying to rebound from an unscheduled pit stop, and Ty Gibbs, who was trapped a lap down after a speeding penalty.
Gibbs ended up pushing it just a little bit too far and spun out. The caution came just outside of the fuel window, but some drivers tried pushing it as far as they could.
The first among the leaders to pit were Chris Buescher and Truex, both running inside the top-five. Race leader Christopher Bell chose to pit 38 laps shy of the finish.
Suarez, Logano, and Hamlin led the drivers trying to go the distance. Logano took the lead with just five laps remaining and at the checkered flag, it was just 0.662s between Logano and Bell.
Bell is in the safest spot points-wise at +42 followed by Larson at +35, and Byron at +27. The drivers in the elimination zone: Hamlin at -27, Reddick at -30, Blaney at -47, and Elliott at -53. The NASCAR Cup Series now heads to Homestead-Miami Speedway for the 34th round of the 2024 season.
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