Joey Logano Shakes Up the Playoffs with Round of 8 Win at Las Vegas

This past Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway showcased the magic of why NASCAR has a playoff system. The unpredictability until the checkered flag and a driver least expected to advance, getting a win to punch a ticket to the Championship Four.

In this case, it was Joey Logano, the 2x Cup Champion, holding off with enough fuel to hold off a charging Christopher Bell to win the South Point 400. Logano originally had been eliminated at the conclusion of last week’s race at the Charlotte ROVAL, until Alex Bowman failed post-race inspection, leading to Logano being in. However, this was the case of skill from of the best drivers in the circuit, as Logano had a similar win earlier this season at Nashville, winning that race on fumes after several overtime restarts.

Logano led only the final six laps after passing Daniel Suarez, who had a very similar strategy to the race winner. Christopher Bell, who led 155 of the 267 laps and won Stage 2, finished second after pitting 35 laps later than Logano and was not able to make up the nearly 30-second advantage on him.

Suarez finished third after leading for 57 laps, followed by Hendrick Motorsports drivers William Byron and Alex Bowman.

“Man, we did some fuel-mileage stuff, didn’t we? Holy crap,” said a smiling Logano after the race.

“What an incredible turn of events here the last week. Very fast Pennzoil Mustang. We’re going to the Championship 4 again. It’s real. Great fuel mileage, great calls by [crew chief] Paul [Wolfe], Nick Hensley, our gas man, making sure she’s full, giving me the info to keep the lead that we needed to. We’re going racing again. What an incredible situation, man. I’m so blessed.

“Just an incredible day. Like I said, it takes the whole team to do the fuel mileage stuff. Not just the engineers, spotter. It takes all of us 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.”

While Logano was smiling, Bell was disappointed more.

“I don’t know, and I don’t think I have come to terms yet,” said Bell, who had started the race from the pole. “Just a bummer. I think everyone on this team did everything perfect today. This thing was obviously on rails, pit crew did an amazing job and [pit crew] Adam [Stevens] called a great race. Did everything we needed to, but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be today.

“The points look pretty good, but you’re never safe in this deal,” Bell added. “We needed to win today and unfortunately, we didn’t. We’ll go on to the next one.”

This race definitely didn’t go without championship implications, as some had wrecked and some had pit road issues. The ones that got out clean were Logano (winner), Bell (2nd), Byron (4th), and Denny Hamlin (8th). For Hamlin, he had a challenging day on pit road, followed by using a fuel strategy similar to Logano’s. Finishing out the top ten were Martin Truex Jr., Ross Chastain, Hamlin, John Hunter Nemechek, and Chris Buescher.

Kyle Larson would finish 11th after pit road issues, which involved him being a lap down at one point. Despite the issues, it was enough to keep him in good standing after the race, as he sat 35 points above the cutoff line.

Tyler Reddick finished 35th, as despite winning stage one, he would wreck out of the race after a rollover accident while in a close battle on Lap 89. This wreck would involve Brad Keselowski, and playoff drivers Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney.

The defending Champion Ryan Blaney had a rough weekend from start to end that began with a flat tire in Saturday’s opening practice, which would lead him to a backup car. He would finish 32nd after getting involved in the previously mentioned wreck. Elliott would finish behind him in 33rd.

Hamlin is 27 points below the cutline behind Byron. Reddick is 30 below, followed by Blaney (-47) and Elliott (-53).

The Round of 8 continues on at the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, this coming Sunday at 2:30 pm EST.