NASCAR: Joey Logano wins his 2nd Cup Series Championship

Polesitter Joey Logano drove his superior Penske Ford to victory Sunday in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix, holding off his teammate Ryan Blaney to secure his 2nd career NASCAR Cup title.

Ross Chastain was gaining slowly of Logano, but came up 1.2s short and finished 3rd.

Chase Briscoe, and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-5.

Logano dominated the race leading 188 laps and his teammate Blaney led 109 laps. No one could touch those Penske Fords on this day.

“We did it! We’re champions again, yes! Oh, my God, I’m so excited,” said Logano

“Thank you to everybody, my team. You guys are amazing. Gave me a good race car, good pit stop there at the end, got us up in front. Boy, that was just intense there at the end. It’s all about championships.

“That’s what it’s all about, and we worked so hard the last couple weeks trying to put ourselves in position. And everything that happened in 2020, I knew we just wanted to have a solid run and do this today.

“I can’t thank Ford and Shell-Pennzoil enough for supporting me over the last 10 years, getting us a couple championships today. All our partners at Team Penske, everybody that works on these cars. It’s such a big deal to win these championships. It impacts so many people’s lives.”

“Starting better and racing up there with those guys all day (would have helped),” said a disappointed Chastain.

“We got our car really good there at the end. Hats off to Phil Surgen (crew chief) and everybody at Trackhouse. It’s incredible to build from 2011. To have my family push me away from the farm to chase this dream.

“For my mom, my dad and my brother to come out and keep pushing me, keep supporting me and keep being there for me. But today was all about winning the big trophy and we came up just a little bit short.”

Team owner Roger Penske won both the 2022 IndyCar and NASCAR Cup titles.

Chase Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion and 2022 Regular Season champion, saw his championship hopes take a significant hit after he spun during a restart of the Championship race at Phoenix Raceway.

With 113 laps to go, the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet came down the “dogleg” just after the start/finish line and spun off the nose of fellow Championship 4 competitor Ross Chastain.

Elliott ran inside the top 10 before the spin in the Final Stage.

Logano enters rarified air with his second Cup title, joining former teammate Kyle Busch as the only active multi-time champions on the circuit. The 32-year-old Connecticut native celebrates his second title in the past five seasons and places this year’s trophy alongside his 2018 title.

This year was met with more change for Logano than just a new vehicle. He and his wife Brittany welcomed their third child, Emilia, to the world less than 48 hours after Logano won the Clash in Los Angeles, all while Logano moved into a more veteran role at the team he’s called home for the past 10 seasons.

Brad Keselowski, the 2012 champion, departed Team Penske for a different challenge at RFK Racing for the 2022 season. Long viewed as the new kid on the block, Logano shifted into the leadership role alongside teammates Ryan Blaney and rookie Austin Cindric. That experience paid dividends as all three drivers made the playoffs, and Logano clinched another title.

Logano locked his way into the postseason in May, collecting his first points-paying win of the year at Darlington Raceway. The victory didn’t come without ruffled feathers after he roughed up William Byron with a lap and a half remaining. Their contact drew the ire of Byron and Hendrick Motorsports, but Logano continued his championship run with another victory just three weeks later in the inaugural Cup race at Worldwide Technology Raceway at Gateway in St. Louis.

The road to another title was anything but smooth for the No. 22 team. Its summer featured a four-race stretch with consecutive finishes of 20th or worse. That rockiness wasn’t left in the regular season, either. Kansas and Bristol saw Logano finish outside the top 15 in consecutive races during the opening round of the playoffs, along with a 27th-place finish at Talladega in the Round of 12.

But his win in mid-October at Las Vegas was enough to clinch his way to the Championship 4 for the fifth time in nine years, rendering his results at Homestead-Miami (18th) and Martinsville (sixth) irrelevant as the first driver to lock up his spot in the title round.

Logano becomes just the third driver to score multiple championships in the last 10 seasons, joining Jimmie Johnson (2013, 2016) and Kyle Busch (2015, 2019). His journey to the sport’s peak featured plenty of challenges and infamous run-ins on the track since making his first Cup start in 2008, but his talent has been unquestioned, particularly since joining Team Penske in 2013.

Before that he was with Joe Gibbs Racing, competing full-time in Cup from 2009-12. He scored his first career win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway — his home track — in his rookie year in a rain-shortened race. An impressive duel with mentor Mark Martin in June 2012 at Pocono found Logano back in Victory Lane and propelled him to the No. 22 car the following season.

Once he and Team Penske joined forces, the climb to the top was underway.

Race Results

POS	CAR	DRIVER	MANUF	BEHIND	LAPS
1	22	Joey Logano (P)		0.000	312
2	12	Ryan Blaney		0.301	312
3	1	Ross Chastain (P)		1.268	312
4	14	Chase Briscoe		3.206	312
5	4	Kevin Harvick		3.436	312
6	24	William Byron		4.494	312
7	18	Kyle Busch		5.133	312
8	11	Denny Hamlin		6.463	312
9	5	Kyle Larson		7.011	312
10	20	Christopher Bell (P)		7.311	312
11	2	Austin Cindric #		8.830	312
12	16	AJ Allmendinger(i)		9.215	312
13	3	Austin Dillon		10.406	312
14	43	Erik Jones		11.572	312
15	19	Martin Truex Jr.		12.513	312
16	41	Cole Custer		12.622	312
17	23	Daniel Hemric(i)		15.210	312
18	7	Corey LaJoie		19.754	312
19	21	Harrison Burton #		22.171	312
20	10	Aric Almirola		23.181	312
21	17	Chris Buescher		24.655	312
22	45	Bubba Wallace		-1	311
23	8	Tyler Reddick		-1	311
24	99	Daniel Suarez		-1	311
25	34	Michael McDowell		-1	311
26	42	Ty Dillon		-1	311
27	31	Justin Haley		-1	311
28	9	Chase Elliott (P)		-3	309
29	38	Todd Gilliland #		-3	309
30	51	Cody Ware		-5	307
31	78	BJ McLeod(i)		-5	307
32	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		-5	307
33	15	Garrett Smithley(i)		-8	304
34	48	Alex Bowman		-8	304
35	6	Brad Keselowski		-42	270
36	77	Landon Cassill(i)		-228	84

# DENOTES ROOKIE
(i) NOT ELIGIBLE FOR POINTS
(*) REQUIRED TO QUALIFY ON TIME