Cup: ‘Even Season’ Logano rides miracle wave into Championship 4
LAS VEGAS — Forget Even Steven, Joey Logano is ‘Even Season.’
Joey Logano went to victory lane Sunday in the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, earning his sixth Championship 4 berth and a chance to win his third NASCAR Cup Series championship.
All six Championship 4 berths have come in even Cup Series seasons, dating back to its inception in 2014:
- 2014: Earned enough points to qualify for the Championship 4
- 2016: Won Phoenix, the final race before the Championship 4
- 2018, ’20, ’22, ’24: Won the Round of 8 opener to qualify
Two years ago, Logano won when Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosted the Round of 8 opener for the first time. Now, he has the chance to do what he did that year — win a championship.
“Our goal to show up at Daytona is to win the championship. Nothing else matters. A big step is getting into the Championship 4 and it’s a long year. A lot of curveballs thrown your way. But I have also lived the moments of getting there and not winning, and it sucks. That hurts a lot, so it’s all about maximizing the opportunity that’s ahead of us. As proud as I am that we made it, we still have a lot of work because I know what that feeling of losing is like,” he said.
In terms of statistics at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Logano has now won four of the last 12 Cup Series races there. He has never won more than three races at any other track.
Statistics aside, it wasn’t easy for Logano to get to Championship 4. A week ago, when the checkered flag flew at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, he was out of the playoffs by a handful of points.
With Alex Bowman’s car 17 pounds light and out of the Round of 8 with a post-race tech failure, and 194 laps down in Sunday’s race after scoring solid stage points to capitalize on other playoff drivers’ failures, Logano needed to run the final 73 laps of the race on a single gas tank with tires that were 15 laps older, to solidify the ultimate comeback that the competition was scared of.
“It’s all about the people. When Roger Penske hires people, everyone knows what they’re showing up to do,” Logano said.
The two-time Cup Series champion credited champion crew chief Paul Wolfe, whom Logano dubbed “Big Ball Paul,” and spotter Coleman Pressley, in particular. He said they instilled confidence in him that he needed to win in odd circumstances.
“Coleman was telling me like, ‘Hey I think we’re in good shape. He’s not going to catch us if we keep doing what we’re doing,’ he said. “That information made me feel pretty confident and you know I know Paul well enough now that, when I hear in his voice, he felt pretty confident we were going to make it on gas. So I felt like we could keep running that pace and stay in front of the 20,” he said.
Logano led just the final six laps to score his 35th NASCAR Cup Series win and the big berth.
TOP-10 FINISHERS (LAP 267): Logano, Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez, William Byron, Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr., Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, John Hunter Nemechek, Chris Buescher
Corey LaJoie, Noah Gragson, Michael McDowell and Cody Ware finished 14th, 18th, 20th and 21st, respectively, on the same strategy as Logano.
Logano placed eighth and fifth in the stages before scoring the win.
STAGE ONE TOP-10 (LAP 80): Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Martin Truex Jr., William Byron, Brad Keselowski, Ty Gibbs, Chris Buescher, Joey Logano, Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson
Cindric, Reddick and Keselowski finished 34th-36th after a wild wreck on the frontstretch at the start of stage two that saw Reddick go upside down. The wreck also collected Chase Elliott, who finished 37 laps down, and Ryan Blaney, who finished eight laps down after getting involved in a secondary incident.
MORE:
STAGE TWO TOP-10 (LAP 165): Bell, Truex, Byron, Buescher, Logano, Alex Bowman, Justin Haley, Daniel Suarez, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Preece
Christopher Bell led four times for 155 laps before his final pit stop on lap 229. Bell ran Logano down from 27 seconds back to come up just 0.662 seconds shy of winning to get his third consecutive Championship 4 berth.
Bell leads the playoff standings heading to Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Straight Talk Wireless 400 goes green just after 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
NASCAR Cup Series playoff standings after Las Vegas
- Joey Logano ADVANCED
- Christopher Bell (4086 points) +42 points to the cutline
- Kyle Larson (4079) +35
- William Byron (4071) +27
- Denny Hamlin (4044) -27 points to the cutline
- Tyler Reddick (4041) -30
- Ryan Blaney (4024) -47
- Chase Elliott (4018) -53
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com