Win puts Logano into NASCAR Cup finale
Joey Logano became the first driver to qualify for the NASCAR Cup series' championship finale by using fresh tires to chase down Ross Chastain and win Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“We're racing for a championship! Let's go!” Logano screamed to the crowd. Logano is NASCAR's 2018 champion and advanced to the title-deciding finale for the fifth time in his career.
Logano used a late pit stop for new tires in a Team Penske attempt to give him a shot at the win. The new Goodyears helped him gain six immediate spots on a restart, but his Ford was still in eighth on the final restart with 16 laps remaining.
Chase Briscoe restarted as the leader ahead of Justin Haley and Chastain, and Chastain used a sweeping three-wide pass on the bottom of the track to take the lead. Chastain had a decent gap on the field, but Logano was charging his way toward the front.
Chastain successfully held off Logano several times with blocks, but Logano ultimately pulled alongside Chastain on the frontstretch with three laps remaining to take the lead and earn his third win of the season.
“Joey did a good job of getting through the field there,” said Chastain, who finished second in a Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing.
Kyle Busch, who was eliminated from the playoffs in the first round, finished third in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.
Briscoe was fourth in a
Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing and was followed by Denny Hamlin, another playoff driver, in a Toyota from Joe Gibbs Racing. Hamlin had started 31st, the lowest of the playoff drivers, and salvaged his title hopes with the top-five finish.
The race was the first of three in this round of NASCAR's playoffs. The eight remaining drivers will be whittled down to four for the winner-take-all finale at Phoenix next month.
With the stakes so high, the race was fraught with tension from the start and even included nearly a fight between Bubba Wallace and reigning NASCAR champion Kyle Larson.
The dustup between Wallace and Larson collected Christopher Bell, who won last week at Charlotte to advance into this round of the playoffs and is now ranked last in the standings following his 34th-place finish.
“We will see if we can go pull another rabbit out of the hat,” Bell said.
Joining Bell below the cut line for elimination was William Byron, who pitted from 11th ahead of the final restart in hopes that fresh tires would give him a better finish, but the Hendrick Motorsports driver wound up finishing only 13th.
Briscoe and Ryan Blaney of Team Penske are sandwiched between Byron and Bell below the cutline. Blaney led for 39 laps but hit the wall with what appeared to be a tire failure. He finished 28th, seven laps down.
Logano is locked in to the finale, while Chastain, Hamlin and regular-season champion Chase Elliott are above the cut line. Elliott finished 21st in an uninspiring showing in his Hendrick Motorsports entry.
“I did a really bad job all weekend,” Elliott said. “All around poor effort on my behalf, and when you perform that poorly, you get poor results.”
Formula One
The owner of Haas F1 said Mick Schumacher must score some points over the final four races of the season to show he deserves a third season in that seat.
Gene Haas said Sunday that the F1 organization has spoken to other drivers about 2023 but that “Mick's future is going to be decided by Mick.”
Schumacher is the son of seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher. He's scored 12 points through 18 races with F1 next Sunday scheduled to race at Circuit of the Americas in Texas. There are four races remaining on the F1 schedule.
“We're just waiting. We need Mick to bring some points and we're trying to give him as much time as possible to see what he can do,” Haas told The Associated Press. “If he wants to stay with us, he's got to show us that he can score some more points. That's what we are waiting for.”
The 23-year-old Schumacher is ranked 16th in the standings out of 20 full-time F1 drivers, and has one less race this season than the rest of the field. He missed the second race of the season after a crash in qualifying at Saudi Arabia required a short hospital stay for the German driver.
“In this sport, being kind of a rookie driver, the sport just doesn't allow it — it's just too expensive,” Haas said. “If you make any mistakes in driver selection, or strategy, or tire selection, it is costing you millions of dollars.
“I think Mick has got a lot of potential, but you know he costs a fortune and he's wrecked a lot of cars that have cost us a lot of money that we just don't have. Now, if you bring us some points, and you are (Max) Verstappen and you wreck cars, we'll deal with it. But when you are in the back and you wreck cars, that's very difficult.”
Drivers being mentioned to replace Schumacher include Antonio Giovinazzi and Nico Hulkenberg.