NASCAR News: Logano denies Bell in South Point 400 in Vegas

In what was a full week of emotions for the No. 22 team and driver Joey Logano, the two-time Cup Series champion punched his ticket to the Championship 4 by winning Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

This was Logano’s fourth Cup Series victory in Las Vegas and 35th overall. The triumph solidified the Middletown, Conn. native’s streak of qualifying for the Championship 4 in even number years dating back to the format’s inception in 2014.

Logano savored a relatively clean day in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, leading just the last six of the 267 laps in the South Point 400. His third win of the season was his fourth on the 1.5-mile Vegas track and the 35th of his Cup Series career.

Christopher Bell led a race-high 155 laps and wound up second, 0.662 seconds behind in the N0. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Daniel Suárez placed third with William Byron fourth and Alex Bowman completing the top five.

Logano — who found new life in the playoffs after Bowman’s disqualification in the Round of 12 finale last weekend — will bid for the Cup Series championship in the Nov. 10 season finale at Phoenix Raceway. Most of the eight remaining playoff drivers were not as fortunate.

A multicar crash at the start of Stage 2 snared playoff-eligible competitors Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney. Elliott and Blaney were able to continue with damage, but Reddick was sidelined to a 35th-place finish when his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota rolled over in a wild slide through the infield on the front straightaway. Reddick, the Cup Series’ Regular Season Champion, had led nine laps and won Stage 1.

Both Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson endured issues on pit road. Hamlin had a pair of sluggish stops, including a major issue at the Stage 2 break when he was forced to reverse back into his pit stall after his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota crew needed to tighten his left-rear tire. He finished eighth.

Larson, who entered as the Cup Series points leader, fell back after a miscue forced him to make an additional green-flag stop during Stage 2. He brought his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to pit road for a lengthy stop on Lap 125, then pitted again three laps later to change the left-rear tire. He fell from the lead to 31st place, two laps down, then rallied to finish 11th on the lead lap.

The Cup Series will continue the Round of 8 at Homestead-Miami Speedway next Sunday.

Joey Logano

Welcome to the Championship 4, Joey Logano and Team Penske. How intense was that final run behind the wheel?

JOEY LOGANO: Man, we did some fuel mileage stuff, didn’t we? Holy crap. What an incredible turn of events here the last week. Very fast Pennzoil Mustang.

Joe Kids Crew here today, a lot of kids. Special to win in front of them again. My kids at home, wish you were out here.

We’re going to the Championship 4 again. It’s real. Thanks to the fans out here. Great fuel mileage, great calls by Paul, 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.

Take me behind the wheel. How disciplined did you have to be during that run saving fuel, keeping pace, knowing the 20 was catching you very fast?

JOEY LOGANO: “I mean, Coleman up there in the spotter stand working with Paul and our engineer Shaggy and Joe. Everybody does a good job at feeding the info that I needed. You got to go the right pace, make sure you get in front of the 99, not get to where the 20 was going to catch me.

Just 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 be able to maximize it at the end,” said Logano.

“So proud of our race team all the way through. This group of guys, they’re truly incredible. They’re good people, which is one of the things I’m most proud of, but they’re really smart. In the playoffs, they’re able to really be able to keep a level head and maximize the races no matter what’s dealt with them.

“Today we had a solid car. We were not as good as the No. 20 team, but we were a top five car. On longer runs we were probably the best car. When there’s an opportunity like that at the end of the race, where there’s a long run, you’re able to make good mileage, that’s one of our strengths that we have with the Ford, so there’s an opportunity there to run it long. When you put that together with Paul Wolfe, an incredible crew chief, he really makes that happen there.

“Engineers calculating everything. Then communication, right? To Coleman (Pressley), my spotter, back down to me as a driver, how much can I save, what’s going on around me. Obviously, we don’t want to win by too much, make sure you save enough gas to get to the end. Yeah, able to make it happen.”

Christopher Bell

Complete disappointment for Christopher Bell. Comes up one spot short. I heard the frustration on the radio at the end of the race. How do you come to terms with how that race played out?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve come to terms yet. I don’t know. 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. Adam called a great race. Did everything we did everything we needed to to put this Rheem Camry in Victory Lane. Wasn’t meant to be today.

Last year you find a spot in the Championship 4, winning in this round. How do you use this to fuel you next weekend and Homestead?

CHRISTOPHER BELL: It’s a whole new race next week. The track means nothing for next week. Fortunately we were able to go and win in Homestead. But nothing’s guaranteed. Just because I ran second today doesn’t mean I’m going to finish anywhere next week.

Yeah, I think the points look pretty good, which is a positive. You’re never safe in this deal. We needed to win today. Unfortunately we didn’t. We’ll go on to the next one.

South Point 400 Race Results