Logano spoils Big Three party to win improbable title

HOMESTEAD, FLA. — Joey Logano was relatively quiet during the fourdriver media availability leading up to NASCAR’s final race of the season.

“Sometimes it’s best to keep your mouth shut, just go out there and kick [butt],” he said. Consider it done. Logano, the wild card in the mix of NASCAR’s four playoff drivers, outlasted all of them to win his first NASCAR Monster Energy Cup championship Sunday evening at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Logano took the lead from Martin Truex Jr. with 12 laps to go in the Ford EcoBoost 400 and cruised to the victory by1.725 seconds. Kevin Harvick was third, followed by Kyle Busch, as all four drivers chasing a title finished in the top 4.

”We did it! We won the championship! I can’t believe it!” Logano said on pit road after the race.

The exclamation points were welldeserved. Logano was the only driver among the Championship 4 not to win a Cup title entering the race. And away from the insular crowd at Team Penske, he was hardly a favorite among many fans.

Logano was the first of the four to qualify for the championship mix in Homestead, although under contentious circumstances. He squeezed past Truex’s car during a last-lap bump-and-run three weeks ago at Martinsville Speedway, pushing him out of the way.

Having been rough-housed, the normally affable Truex Jr. promised payback.

“I have a free pass,” Truex said during his media availability Thursday. “He already told me I could. He told me he’s fair game. So here we go.”

It never came to that as Logano easily finished first.

“I had nothing for him at the end,” Truex said.

Busch held the lead before smoke from Daniel Suarez’s car brought out the caution with 21 laps to go. Truex passed Busch after the restart and seemed to be primed to successfully defend his title, but then Logano easily played catch-up without resorting to bump-and-run strategy.

“He beat these guys fair and square,” team owner Roger Penske said.

Penske had a bit of blind faith in July 2012 after one of his drivers, AJ Allmendinger, failed a drug test. A ride opened up, and Logano slid into the slot off the recommendation of Brad Keselowski.

Logano could have easily been lost in the shuffle of many speed racers whose careers fizzled for different reasons. With the proverbial door closing, Logano got a chance that changed his career.

“I sat down with Joey and his dad,” Penske said Sunday night. “No agents. It was just us sitting down and shaking hands on what we were going to do.”

Logano, who had struggled in his first four Cup seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing, did not disappoint.

Logano, 28, had 20 victories going into Sunday’s race and had finished no lower than eighth in all but one season since 2013. The glitch came in 2017 with a 17th-place finish.

“I’ve worked my whole life to win a championship,” he said. “We’ve been so close. … I was going to pass that car no matter what.”