READY, SET, LOGANO!
through Truex’s championship reign.
“It’s a tough way to lose,” Truex said. “I had nothing for him at the end. That’s just the way it goes. I don’t know what else to say. It hurts a little, and I’m going to miss all of the guys.”
Harvick was third and Busch fourth as the title contenders followed each other across the finish line.
“We weren’t even close,” said Busch, who used strategy to keep up with the other title contenders.
“We were so bad tonight on the racetrack and on pit road that nothing was kind of going our way. So it was just not all there the way that we needed it to, and sometimes it all falls into place and falls your way, and other times you’ve got to be able to go out there and go earn it, and we didn’t have either.”
In fact, Busch’s crew had one of its worst races of the year on pit road as the front tire changer had hiccups on several stops. It negated any advantage Busch gained when team owner Gibbs forced Denny Hamlin not to take the first pit stall and leave it open so Busch would have an easier exit back onto the track. But he lost six positions during one stop, four in another, and his team had to gamble on strategy to stay in contention.
It was Busch who said losing the title would be most disappointing if it went to Logano because Logano wasn’t in the same league as the Big Three all season. But Logano was adamant he was the favorite, in part because he wasn’t even supposed to make the final four after just one regular season victory. Busch and Harvick ended the season with eight wins each, while Truex had four.
“Lots of wins,” Busch said. “Forget about it now, move on.”
The title is redemption for Logano, who could have washed out of the sport when Gibbs cut him from the team. But he reinvented himself under Penske and became comfortable as an aggressive driver, even when it cost him.
Logano was the favorite to win the 2015 title but missed the finale because a feud with Matt Kenseth cost him on the track. He was the championship runner-up in 2016, and a penalty kept his No. 22 out of last season’s playoffs.
Logano this season had to move Truex out of his way in the final turn at Martinsville Speedway last month to earn his berth in the championship race. Logano The 28-year-old Connecticut racer was criticized for his aggressiveness, and Truex promised he’d prevent Logano from winning the Cup, but Logano insisted he made the necessary move to win a championship.
And in the final 15-lap shootout to the finish, Logano simply drove around the outside of Truex and pulled away. If Truex had any intention of stopping Logano he had to catch him first, he couldn’t and finished 1.725 seconds behind.
Logano’s third win came at Homestead, where the champion has won the race to win the title since this format was introduced in 2014. He’s NASCAR’s 33rd different champion and first from Connecticut.
Team Penske also won the owner’s championship.