In a race riddled in wreckage and restarts, Joey Logano rose above the rest.
With 16 laps to go, just after the final restart at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it was clear that the No. 22 car was the fastest remaining. Ross Chastain jumped out to a lead on the race’s final restart — but Logano made a marvelous move and cleared the No. 1 car with three laps to go and then never looked back.
With the win, Logano has secured his spot in the Championship 4 in Phoenix next month.
“We’re racing for a championship, let’s go!” Logano screamed to the crowd, a few moments after celebrating at the start-finish line.
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Daniel Suarez (99) leads the race at a restart during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher) John Locher AP
Logano ran in the Top 10 all day. He and Cup playoff Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney did, too, prior to a tire issue that got the No. 12 car loose with about 50 laps to go and effectively ended his shot at winning.
“What a great car,” Logano continued on the NBC Sports feed. “Penske cars were all fast today. Ah man, all you want to do is get to the Championship 4 when the season starts and race for a championship, and we got the team to do it. I don’t see why we can’t win at this point. So things are looking really good for us.”
Sunday marked Logano’s third win this Cup season. Chastain finished second, followed by third-placed Kyle Busch.
Calling this race a run of attrition would be an understatement. There were eight cautions for a total of 42 laps on Sunday — and a lot of them knocked out the leaders.
Bubba Wallace earned a Stage 1 win before getting caught in a collision and ending his day in Stage 2. Blaney had that aforementioned incident on Turn 2 on Lap 229. Busch had his left-front tire pop off exiting pit road. And Daniel Suarez, who was having such a promising day, got loose and skidded into the infield grass late in Stage 3.
Logano said he’ll remember this race for the “adversity” he fought through on those last 50 laps.
“I thought we were gonna win, and then we kind of fell out,” he said. He added, “Racing Ross was fun. He was doing a good job air-blocking me. I was trying to be patient but eventually I was like, ‘I gotta go here.’ So it’s just great to win out here in Vegas again, and it means so much getting into the championship.”
Fight! Stage 2 wreck knocks Bell, Larson and Wallace
The mostly clean racing day turned dramatic in Stage 2.
Bubba Wallace, who had earned the Stage 1 win and had been racing near the front all Sunday, got nudged into the wall by Kyle Larson on a turn in Lap 95.
The No. 45 car then resorted to retaliation, seeking Larson out and hooking into Larson’s right rear quarter panel, spinning the driver out. Larson then collected Christopher Bell’s No. 20 car in the carnage.
The mess prompted a caution — but that was far from the end of the debacle.
Wallace immediately hopped out of his car, ending his day, and then marched up to Larson. A physical altercation ensued, with Wallace shoving Larson, appearing to demand an explanation for why Larson went three-wide on the turn and shoved him into the wall.
After a few moments, an official escorted Wallace to the infield care center, and the driver of the No. 45 car shared his thoughts with reporters on-site.
“Larson wanted to make a three-wide dive-bomb, never cleared me and I don’t lift,” Wallace told NBC Sports on Sunday. “I know I’m kind of new to running up the front, but I don’t lift. Wasn’t even in the spot to lift, and he never lifted either. Now we’re junk, so just a piss-poor move at his execution.”
Wallace, who was competing for owner playoff points but wasn’t in the playoffs himself, later added: “He knows what he did was wrong.”
Larson emerged from the infield care center a few moments after Wallace and offered his thoughts to NBC, too. Larson echoed the sentiments of what a lot of people on social media were saying after the collision and retaliation — that considering the issues this car has had with safety, this retaliation was inappropriate.
“I think with everything that’s been going on here lately with head injuries and all that, fractured ligaments and all that, I don’t think it’s probably the right thing to do,” Larson said. “But we’ve all done it — maybe not all of us, but I have. I’ve let my emotions get the best of me before too. So I know he’s probably still upset, but I’m sure with everything going on, he’ll know that he made a mistake in the retaliation part. And I’m sure he’ll think twice about it next time.”
Bell was an innocent bystander in Sunday’s mess — and, coincidentally, he had the most to lose.
The playoff driver was ultimately knocked out of the race because of the hit he sustained, after his No. 20 team couldn’t fix the issues within the DVP clock’s 10-minute window and thus headed to the garage.
He called his role in the mess “the short end of the stick.”
“The good thing is, I feel better about not winning one of those two races than I did about the Roval,” Bell said. “Just had really, really strong (Toyota) Camrys all year long, so we’ll see if we can pull another rabbit out of the hat.”
Other observations after South Point 400
— It was largely a successful day for TrackHouse Racing, and it looked for a while that it would be historic. Chastain and Suarez ran well — Chastain got ultimately run-down by Logano, and Suarez was stifled by a spin-out late in Stage 3.
— Denny Hamlin rose up through the field despite another bad starting position of 31st. That’s the second straight race he started outside the Top 20 but salvaged a decent day despite that. (He finished 13th last weekend at the Roval.)
— Race-day totals: There were 18 lead changes, 11 different leaders and eight cautions for 42 laps. Chastain led the most laps with 68, followed by Ryan Blaney with 39. Logano, the race’s winner, led 32 laps on the day.
— The next race — and the penultimate race of the Round of 8 playoffs — will take place next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
