bob forkras
Fox NASCAR Insider
LAS VEGAS — Joey Logano is out of the playoffs and has a chance to compete for a NASCAR Cup Series title in three weeks at Phoenix Raceway.
Logano, who thought he was eliminated from the playoffs last week in Charlotte, was fueled hours after the race when he learned that Alex Bowman had failed the post-race weight requirement to advance Logano to the semifinal round of the championship race. jumped into. Mileage strategy for victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday.
Logano said he and his wife laughed about it in victory lane.
“Can you believe it a week ago at this time… I walked out of my bedroom and said, ‘You’re not going to believe this,’” Logano said, recalling the conversation. “A week later, I said to her, ‘You won’t believe this, we won.’”
Team Penske drivers entered the quarterfinals (NASCAR’s version of the semifinal round) with the fewest points, and at least one driver would be one of the four finalists based on points, but a race win would earn a playoff driver an automatic bid. You get At the season finale on November 10th at Phoenix Raceway, the four drivers who advance to the championship round race (along with everyone else) and the driver who finishes first among those four will win the title.
“We probably didn’t have the best regular season, but when the salary window opens in the playoffs, 22 (teams) show up.” “We’re going to have a lot of fun,” said Logano, a two-time Cup champion who was 15th in the regular season standings. Seven drivers finished in the top seven in the quarterfinals.
Christopher Bell thought he would be the driver in victory lane as he led 155 laps and had a dominant car, but Logano did not stop for fuel while most of the field chose to pit and took the green flag on the final 69 laps. I went on a drive. Logano was told he would be one lap short and made enough of a save to pass Daniel Suarez with six laps remaining.
“(My crew chief) said we were one lap short,” Logano said. “It’s not that hard to do that many laps and save one lap.”
The opening race of the three-race round (Homestead and Martinsville remain the same) left eight players still eligible for the title, as Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney were involved in an accident on Lap 89 and Denny Hamlin and Kyle were involved in an accident. It didn’t go smoothly for the driver. Larson suffered from problems on pit road.
Takeout in Las Vegas:
Reddick Flips, Elliot Is Frustrated
Reddick, who won the opening stage, attempted a move from the outside to create a 3-wide when Chase Elliott (center) and Martin Truex Jr. eventually made contact, and overturned Reddick, who reversed on a triple. grass.
Reddick was unable to continue after the move, which he wanted to have again but thought had plenty of room to create.
“Offensively, I felt like I needed to be on this 1.5-mile track, and today it bit me,” Reddick said. “(Truex’s) 19 wriggled into (Elliott’s) 9. We all ran out of room.
“That’s it.”
Elliott seemed to have mixed feelings afterward.
“I definitely understand, but there wasn’t a lot of space in the corner.” Elliot said. “It was a big gamble at that point in the race for him to acknowledge me and for Martin to acknowledge that he had a big upside.
“It was definitely aggressive, but we’re trying to compete for a championship.”
Elliott said his car is probably the best he’s had in Las Vegas in years.
“I was personally trying to get out of the situation, but at that point it was too late,” Elliott said. “That’s annoying.”
Reddick’s car landed on all fours and he drove it to pit road, but the car was destroyed when it came to suspension and brakes.
“I saw a little bit of grass and sky,” Reddick said of the flip.
Would Logano benefit from a little help?
Ryan Blaney was also caught up in the Reddick wreck and fell a few laps behind to catch Logano on the final lap.
Bell felt Blaney did some defense for Logano and agreed.
“This is fair game and props to (Blaney),” Bell said. “(Logano’s) 22 wins probably didn’t look good against Blaney’s 12 wins because they’re racing each other for points.
“Penske won the race and got a car. They did it right.”
Blaney scoffed at the idea that Bell was helping prevent his capture.
“(Bell’s) No. 20 didn’t get to me until the last corner,” Blaney said. “I don’t know what makes you think I’m blocking him.
“I’m running on top. I’m not going to take anyone’s air. He probably should have gotten to 22 sooner. He could have passed me pretty easily, but he was half a lap too late.”
Larson, Hamlin pit crew concerns
Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson both ended up taking multiple positions during the race due to slow pit stops, with Larson even having to pit second and lap down in one sequence.
Hamlin finished 8th and Larson 11th.
“It’s not a clean day,” Hamlin said. “That definitely sums it up. You will be. We will do our best to get the best finish.”
Larson had similar views.
“We made the most of it,” Larson said. “(It) could have been a lot worse.”
Larson took some consolation in that he left the race at least 35 points above the cutoff, while Hamlin was 27 points behind.
“We’re not running as strong as we were at the beginning of the year,” Hamlin said. “We’re definitely not as clean as we used to be in terms of execution.
“We’ve got to clean it up and go to Homestead and try to win.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has covered motorsports for decades, including more than 30 Daytona 500s, working for ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @Bobpokras.
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