LAS VEGAS, Nev.: The NASCAR Cup Series has its first Championship 4 participant with Joey Logano having an opportunity to secure his second championship title with a win in Sunday’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway.
With three laps to go, the No.22 Pennzoil Ford driver would pass Ross Chastain for the lead and never look back.
A bold pit strategy from crew chief Paul Wolfe put his driver in the eye of the storm late in the race, but the additional grip – and a well-balanced race car allowed him to deliver his fourth win of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Locking himself into the Championship 4 gives Logano a breather for the next two races in the Round of 8.
The jubilant driver belted, “We’re racing for a championship! Let’s go!!! Man, what a great car.”
Second-place finisher and one of the major storylines of the season Ross Chastain saw his stamp into the Championship 4 disappear over the final five miles of the race, but he remains a semi-comfortable 18 points above the cutline heading to the Dixie Vodka 400 on October 23.
Leading a total of 68 laps in Sunday’s South Point 400, the No. 1 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet driver would take the lead several times in Stage 2 and a hard-fought battle with the Team Penske car of Logano for the win – but had to settle for his fourth runner-up finish of 2022.
Chastain even threw several late race blocks to detour Logano’s momentum and speed, but it still wasn’t enough.
“You know, I’m sure I can go back and find a few things, and to run the top there and let him get inside of me, I thought I had one more corner to do that, and he just got positioned on me there on the front stretch, and we were just really tight,” said Chastain after the race.
Championship favorite Chase Elliott had a miserable weekend in Sin City.
Not only did the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver lack speed in practice and qualifying, but the 2020 Cup Series champion was nowhere to be found during the 267-lap race.
The poor performance dropped him two spots in the Playoff grid. Hovered outside the top-20 for most of the race, not even several attempts to correct the handling on his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro would be enough to jolt the car to life.
“I just did a really bad job,” explained Elliott after the race. I’m obviously missing something at places like this to compete with the gentlemen that know what they’re doing. I need to re-evaluate myself, in general, to have a shot next week.”
Denny Hamlin, on the other hand was able to rebound from a poor qualifying effort and collect his 10th top-five finish on Sunday.
Advancing 26 positions on the day from his 31st place qualifying effort, Hamlin bumped up above the cutline by three spots and stands six points ahead of fifth heading to Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“Honestly, I thought we were going to be a little bit better than we were today but starting 31st and to get a top-five in the second stage and top-five for the race is pretty decent,” offered Hamlin post race.
“We just had one bad stop there at the end that kind of took away our track position, but we got most of that back. Pit crew did great. The guys did a great job adjusting from yesterday.
“We moved in the right direction and moved up in points. Just need to keep plugging along.”
Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron showed flashes of speed on Sunday, but a tight race car left him with a disappointing 13th place finish and six points below the cut line.
Byron’s attempt at a top-10 finish were thwarted on a late race pit stop which dipped the Charlotte, N.C.-native deep in traffic and without enough laps to fully recover.
“We just struggled,” sounded Byron. “We were kind of just bouncing all day and we could never really get our car to stop bouncing, so we just struggled with that. At times, we had the balance OK, but really could never get the right balance to get ourselves to be able to run up front.
“We just hovered around the fifth-to-eighth spot all day. It was just unfortunate that we couldn’t really finish there.”
Chase Briscoe rebounded from a terrible Stage 1 performance to finish fourth.
Ryan Blaney saw what appeared to be his first win of the season busted on a late race mistake in Turn 2 that relegated him to a 28th place run.
And Christopher Bell, last weekend’s Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway ROVAL winner continued his strong presence in the Playoffs on Sunday but wound up a victim in a dramatic accident between Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace on Lap 94 that sent Bell to the garage.
Unfortunately, a victim of circumstance, the Norman, Oklahoma native now founds himself in a familiar position at the bottom of the Playoff standings, 23 markers behind the cutoff spot.
Next Sunday’s Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway will prove to be a pivotal race for the Next Gen car and its’ competitors.
Whether a Playoff driver secures their second spot in the Championship 4 finale at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway remains to be seen – but one thing is for certain, the intensity is ramping up with just two races remaining in the Round of 8 – and just three races remaining in the 2022 Cup Series season.
Follow Grace Krenrich on Twitter @grace3140.
