NASCAR
Joey Logano Wins Las Vegas, Makes Sixth Career Championship 4
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – It’s been a very emotionally charged week for Joey Logano and the Penske 22 team. Last Sunday saw them take the Charlotte Roval checkers out of the Round of 8 cut, only to be re-inserted as the eighth seed. Logano went from the basement to the penthouse in Las Vegas, sealing a third win of 2024 and with it a Championship 4 ticket. Is Logano primed for a third Cup title? This team has two weeks more time than anyone else to make this dream a reality.
The man who was second in March, Tyler Reddick won the opening stage. The 23XI Racing No. 45 went from hero to zero in a matter of laps, however. Early in Stage 2 Chase Elliott was sent sideways and Reddick had nowhere to go off of turn four. After sliding into the frontstretch grass, the 45 got airborne and tumbled before landing on its wheels. The competitive day was over in an instant for contenders Reddick, Elliott, and Ryan Blaney.
A long pit stop midway through Stage 2 also set Kyle Larson on his back foot. The No. 5 Chevrolet would spend the rest of the day regaining lost ground from multiple laps down. Meanwhile, the second Stage win went to Christopher Bell.
One of the few Playoff members without any issues, Bell appeared to be on his way to a very dominant win. The No. 20 Toyota exited pit road 30 seconds off the lead with 37 laps left, and quickly began erasing this deficit.
Up front though, Joey Logano was trying to stretch his fuel tank for the finish and outlast Bell’s hard charge. Logano got to the point with five laps left and remained just enough ahead of Bell to cruise to another win and Championship 4 berth.
“Man we get some fuel mileage stuff don’t we, holy crap” Logano said. “What an incredible turn of events here the last week. A very fast Pennzoil Mustang, we had the JL Kids Crew here today, a lot of kids were rooting us on. So it’s really special to win in front of them again. Hey to my kids at home, wish you guys were 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.”
“Thanks to the fans out here, to Roush-Yates Engines for making great fuel mileage, great call by Paul (Wolfe, crew chief), Nick Hensley our gas man, making sure she was full. Everyone giving me the good info I needed to save fuel and keep the lead that we needed to. Boy we’re going racing again, what an incredible situation, I’m so blessed.”
“Coleman (Pressley, spotter) up there worked with Paul and our engineers to do a good job of feeding me the info I needed. We had to go the right pace to make sure we got in front of the 99, but get to where the 20 wasn’t going to catch me. Just an incredible day, it took the whole team to do the fuel mileage stuff. It’s not just the engine or the engineers or the driver or spotter, it takes all of us together to do it, a total team win. We may have not been the fastest car today, but we were a solid top-five car and maximized it at the end.”
Logano now has four career wins at Las Vegas, tied with Jimmie Johnson for most all-time. In each of Logano’s past championship seasons as well, he won the first Round of 8 race. The Penske 22 crew has two extra weeks to perfect their Mustang for Phoenix.
After leading a race-high 156 laps, Bell only rallied to second a distant six tenths behind Logano. Daniel Suarez, William Byron, and Alex Bowman were the top-five. Martin Truex Jr, Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, John Hunter Nemechek, and Chris Buescher rounded out the top-10.
Logano takes the first Championship 4 berth, leaving three openings left at Phoenix. Take a look at the updated Round of 8 standings below, with two races left before the cut.
Cup cars will be back in action for the middle Round of 8 race next week from Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Straight Talk Wireless 400 goes green Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Many of the remaining seven contenders are great at Homestead. Who can take the second ticket to Phoenix from South Beach?
Written by Peter Stratta
Be sure to follow us on Twitter
Be sure to follow the writer on Twitter
Photo Credit to Sean Gardner/Getty Images
