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Joey Logano was gifted a spot in the NASCAR Playoffs Round of 8 when Alex Bowman was disqualified at Charlotte last week and he didn’t waste any time taking advantage of it.
The Team Penske driver put in master class in fuel efficiency to with the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and lock himself in to the Championship 4, but he didn’t do it alone.
Logano skipped the final round of pit stops to jump ahead of the rest of the playoffs drivers and attempt to stretch his fuel to the finish, while pole sitter Christopher Bell, who had looked unstoppable all day, stopped for a final fill-up and fresh tires on lap 229 of the 267-lap race.
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Logano settled in behind Daniel Suarez, who was on the same strategy, as Bell began driving through the pack and making just under a second a lap.
With about 10 laps to go, Logano caught up with Ryan Blaney, who was several laps down due to damage earlier in the race. Blaney then started drafting Logano on the straights to help him save fuel. Bell’s teammate Ty Gibbs soon started doing the same thing, but with speed instead of efficiency in mind.
Logano passed Suarez with five laps to go and Bell just three seconds in arrears, but the gap was too large and Logano held on to win by .662 seconds to grab his spot at the title in Phoenix.
Suarez ended up in third ahead of playoffs driver William Byron, while Bowman came home in fifth.
Playoffs contenders Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson recovered from pit stop issues to finish eighth and 11th, but Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick were involved in an accident during Stage Two and ended up in 33rd and 35th, seriously hurting their playoff runs.
Here are the playoffs standings heading into Homestead-Miami on Oct. 27:
- Logano – advanced
- Bell – +42
- Larson +35
- Byron +27
- Hamlin -27
- Reddick -30
- Blaney -47
- Elliott -53