Joey Logano was having a stable day even earlier than his gasoline gamble, however it was by no means supposed to finish in victory. Getting into the Spherical of 8, due to Alex Bowman’s stunning disqualification the week prior, Logano seemed like an actual lengthy shot to make the Championship 4.
However he is finished it — locking himself in earlier than title favorites Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell. Logano credit it as a complete crew effort. Crew chief Paul Wolfe, spotter Coleman Pressley, engineers Brandon ‘Shaggy’ Pope and Joseph Bisson, even fueler Nick Hensley — he wanted all of them to have the ability to pull this off.
“I do not assume there is a crew on the market that works higher collectively than Group Penske,” declared Logano in his winner’s press convention. “That’s simply in our DNA right through. That began years and years and years in the past. I can not even take credit score for being a part of that.”
What makes it much more spectacular is that Logano solely has six top-fives this 12 months, and three of these are race wins.
The trail to victory
Logano went into Sunday’s race in tenth and steadily moved ahead, ending Stage 1 in eighth place, and Stage 2 in fifth. When the pivotal warning flew for a spin by Ty Gibbs with 74 laps remaining, Logano was working eighth for what could be the ultimate restart.
As a lot of the leaders selected to pit below inexperienced for a splash of gasoline with about 40 laps left to run, Logano’s crew went in a distinct course. He was not alone on this choice to attempt to stretch the sector with playoff rival Denny Hamlin proper behind him and Daniel Suarez 4 seconds up the highway. Crucially, he was additionally a full lap forward of Bell, who led these with contemporary tires and a full load of gasoline.
With 30 laps to go, a charging Bell was over 20 seconds behind Logano and Suarez, however Logano was shortly slashing away at that margin. He waited patiently, chipping away at Suarez’s lead till he was given the inexperienced gentle to go. With a useful push from his wounded teammate, Ryan Blaney, Logano started to shut quickly, simply passing Suarez with simply six laps left within the race.
It was the primary lap Logano had led all the race. However Bell was nonetheless ahead and Logano was closing quick. With yet one more lap, Bell would have probably received the race irrespective of how a lot gasoline Logano had on board, however the No. 22 crew timed it completely. Logano crossed the road 0.662s forward of a shocked Bell, locking himself into the ultimate 4.
“I used to be simply centered on the data I used to be being fed,” defined Logano. “I used to be going as quick as I felt snug going with saving gasoline. I knew I could not waste time with Suarez. I knew I needed to get by him. Took an additional lap longer than I wished it to be. Was capable of get by him in sufficient time. Felt like we had been in good condition.
“I solely knew that due to what Coleman [Pressley, spotter] was telling me up there. He’s like, ‘I believe we’re in good condition. He’s not going to catch us if we hold doing what we’re doing. So long as you aren’t getting sufficient site visitors friction by passing vehicles and never doing it effectively, you are going to have the ability to keep forward there.’
Joey Logano, Group Penske, Pennzoil Ford Mustang
Photograph by: John Harrelson / NKP / Motorsport Pictures
“The tempo was beginning to equal out as tires had been sporting after a future like that. That info made me fairly assured. I do know Paul [Wolfe, crew chief] nicely sufficient now that after I hear it in his voice, he felt fairly assured we had been going to make it on gasoline.”
Logano has been right here earlier than, turning a 2022 win at Vegas into his second NASCAR Cup title. Identical to this, he does not must put any effort in any way into the remainder of this spherical with all eyes now on Phoenix. “The following two weeks do not actually matter,” he declared. “It is the benefit that we earned. We all know what that benefit is value. It is a value quite a bit. Our focus tomorrow morning can be on Phoenix, job to complete.”
Ought to Logano prevail, he would be the first driver to ever win three titles below this format and simply the tenth driver in historical past to ever win three or extra.
