Joey Logano had his second great week in a row, hitting the jackpot in Las Vegas, Nevada, by holding off Christopher Bell to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series’ South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and advancing into next month’s championship race.
Using a fuel strategy and older tires, the No. 22 Team Penske Racing driver passed Daniel Suarez with five laps to go and beat Bell, who had fresher tires and a faster car, by 0.662 seconds to become the first of four drivers to move to Phoenix in three weeks for the Championship 4 weekend.
Logano only made the Round of 8 opener after Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman was disqualified after last week’s race at the Charlotte Roval.
Following second-place Bell, who led 155 laps, were Suarez, William Byron and Bowman.
Among title contenders, Denny Hamlin finished eighth, while Kyle Larson rebounded from losing two laps to come in 11th.
In the 267-lap race, six of the eight title seekers started in the top 10. Chase Elliott started 18th, while reigning series champion Ryan Blaney began in 37th after wrecking early in practice Saturday and unloading a backup car.
With 16 laps to go in Stage 1, Daniel Hemric shoved Austin Dillon near Turn 3, and Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet crashed hard into the wall. That set multiple strategies in place on pit road as drivers opted for track position or new tires.
After running hard at the end last week at the Roval to secure a spot in the round, Tyler Reddick drove his No. 45 around fellow Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. to pocket Stage 1’s 10-point bonus over Bell.
Lap 90 proved to be Reddick’s undoing, as contact between his car and Elliott’s left them both sliding down the front stretch’s slight banking.
As Reddick’s 23XI Racing car crossed the quarter-mile track sideways, it rolled over once, but the regular-season champion who led nine Vegas laps was retired from the race in 35th.
Blaney, the third championship driver to have problems, looped his No. 12 Ford at the rear of the field with a broken toe link and had to make repairs, as did Elliott.
With five of the eight title contenders having troubles — only Byron and Logano avoid issuesed — Bell added to his day by winning all 10 points in Stage 2 with Truex and Byron right behind him, giving him 19 of a possible 20 bonus points.
