Amazingly, Joey Logano actually outdid himself Sunday after his incredible, season-changing race last weekend in Charlotte.
Logano had his second great week in a row, hitting the jackpot in Las Vegas by holding off Christopher Bell to win the NASCAR Cup Series’ South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and advancing into next month’s championship race.
Using a fuel strategy and older tires, the No. 22 Team Penske Racing driver passed Daniel Suarez with five laps to go and beat Bell, who had fresher tires and a faster car, by 0.662 seconds to become the first of four drivers to move to Phoenix in three weeks for the Championship 4 weekend.
Logano only made the Round of 8 opener after Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman was disqualified following last week’s race at the Charlotte Roval.
“Man, we do some fuel-mileage stuff, don’t we?” exclaimed Logano, who led just six laps in his third victory this season and fourth overall in Vegas. “What an incredible turn of events the last week. … We’re going to the Championship 4 again.
“Great calls by (crew chief Paul Wolfe and my team) to save fuel and keep the lead that we needed to. We’re going racing again. What an incredible situation we’re in.”
Bell got his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota close at the end but ran out of laps.
“Everyone on this team did everything perfect today,” said a dejected Bell. “Nothing’s guaranteed. Just because I finished second this week doesn’t mean I’ll finish anywhere next week (at Homestead). … We needed to win today.”
Following second-place Bell, who led 155 laps, were Suarez, William Byron and Bowman.
Among title contenders, Denny Hamlin finished eighth, while Kyle Larson rebounded from losing two laps to come in 11th.
Ryan Blaney (32nd), Chase Elliott (33rd) and Tyler Reddick (35th) were involved in an incident that doomed their day.
In the 267-lap race, six of the eight title seekers started in the top 10. Elliott started 18th, while series champion Blaney began in 37th after wrecking early in practice Saturday and unloading a backup car.
With 16 laps to go in Stage 1, Daniel Hemric shoved Austin Dillon near Turn 3, and Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet crashed hard into the wall. That set multiple strategies in place on pit road as drivers opted for track position or new tires.
After running hard at the end last week at the Roval to secure a spot in the round, Reddick drove his No. 45 around fellow Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. to pocket Stage 1’s 10-point bonus over Bell.
Lap 90 proved to be Reddick’s undoing, as contact between his car and Elliott’s left them both sliding down the front stretch’s slight banking.
As Reddick’s 23XI Racing car crossed the quarter-mile track sideways, it rolled over once. The regular-season champion who led nine Vegas laps retired from the event.
Blaney, the third championship driver to have problems, looped his No. 12 Ford at the rear of the field with a broken toe link and had to make repairs, as did Elliott.
With five of the eight title contenders having troubles — only Byron and Logano avoid issues — leader Bell added to his day by winning all 10 points in Stage 2 with Truex and Byron right behind him, giving him 19 of a possible 20 bonus points.
–Field Level Media
