NASCAR takeaways: Joey Logano turns second life into Championship 4 spot
LAS VEGAS — Joey Logano went from out of the playoffs to having a spot to vie for the NASCAR Cup Series title in three weeks at Phoenix Raceway.
Logano, who thought he was knocked out of the playoffs last week at Charlotte until learning a couple of hours after the race that Alex Bowman failed postrace weight requirements to put Logano into the semifinal round, vaulted himself into the championship race by using a fuel-mileage strategy to capture the victory Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Logano said he and his wife laughed about it in victory lane.
"Do you believe one week ago at this hour... I come walking out of our bedroom, and I said, ‘You're not going to believe this s---,'" Logano said in recalling the conversation. "Here we are a week later. I told her, ‘You ain't going to believe this, that we won this one.'"
The Team Penske driver entered the Round of 8 (NASCAR's version of the semifinal round) with the fewest points, and while at least one driver, will be among the four finalists based on points, winning a race earns a playoff driver an automatic bid. The four drivers who make it to the championship round race (along with everyone else) in the season finale Nov. 10 at Phoenix Raceway and the top finisher among those four wins the title.
"We had maybe not the best regular season, but when the pay window opens up in the playoffs, the 22 [team] shows up," said two-time Cup champion Logano, who was 15th in the regular-season standings while the other seven drivers in the Round of 8 were in the top seven.
Christopher Bell thought he would be that driver in victory lane as he led 155 laps and had the dominant car, but Logano ran the final 69-lap green-flag run without stopping for fuel while most of the field opted to pit. Logano was told he would be one lap short and was able to save enough and then pass Daniel Suarez with six laps remaining.
"[My crew chief] told me we're one lap short," Logano said. "Saving one lap over the course of that many laps, not that hard to do."
The opening race of the three-race round (Homestead and Martinsville remain) did not go smoothly for the eight drivers still eligible for the title as Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney were involved in a wreck on Lap 89 while Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson were stymied by problems on pit road.
Takeaways from Las Vegas:
Reddick Flips, Elliott Frustrated
Reddick, who won the opening stage, tried to make a move on the outside to make it three-wide when Chase Elliott (in the middle) and Martin Truex Jr. ended up having contact, turning Reddick, who did a flip in the trioval grass.
Reddick couldn't continue after a move he wished he would have back but one that he felt he had enough room to make.
"Being aggressive, I feel like you need to be on these mile-and-a-half [tracks], and it bit me today,' Reddick said. "The 19 [of Truex] wiggled up into the 9 [of Elliott] and we just all ran out of room.
"That's all there is to it."
Elliott appeared to have mixed feelings afterward.
"I certainly understand but there was not a lot of room … in the corner," Elliott said. "At that point in the race, it was a big gamble for him to bank on me recognizing and Martin recognizing that he had a big run up top.
"It was aggressive for sure, but who am I to say, we're trying to race for a championship."
Elliott said his car was possibly the best one he had at Vegas in the last few years.
"I was personally just trying to get out of the situation and was a little too late at that point," Elliott said. "It sucks."
Reddick's car landed on all fours and he drove it to pit road, but the car was destroyed when it came to the suspension and the brakes.
"I saw a little bit of grass, a little bit of the sky," Reddick said about the flip.
Logano capitalizes with some help?
Ryan Blaney was also caught up in the Reddick wreck and was several laps down in following Logano in the final laps.
Bell felt Blaney played some defense for Logano — and was OK with that.
"It's fair game and props to [Blaney]," Bell said. "The 22 [of Logano] winning was probably bad for the 12 [of Blaney] because they're racing each other for points to get in.
"Penske won the race and got one car in. They did it right."
Blaney scoffed at the idea he was helping keep Bell from catching him.
"The 20 [of Bell] didn't get to me until the last corner," Blaney said. "I don't know what the hell you would think I'm blocking him for.
"I'm running the top. I'm not taking anyone's air away. He should have maybe got to the 22 quicker. He would have been able to pass me pretty easy, but he was half a lap too late."
Larson, Hamlin pit crew woes
Both Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson were the victim of slow pit stops that cost them several positions during the race, with Larson even having to pit a second time and going a lap down in one sequence.
Hamlin finished eighth and Larson finished 11th.
"Just not a clean day," Hamlin said. "That certainly kind of sums it up. You'll have that. We'll just do the best we can to get the best finish."
Larson had a similar outlook.
"We made the most of it," Larson said. "[It] could have been a lot worse."
Larson at least has the consolation that he leaves the race 35 points above the cutoff while Hamlin is 27 points behind.
"We're not running quite as strong as what we were earlier in the year," Hamlin said. "We're definitely not as clean execution-wise as what we were.
"We've just got to clean it up, go to Homestead and try to win it."
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
