Logano wins second Cup championship

It was the third NASCAR title for Penske and driver’s fourth win of season.

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Joey Logano won his second NASCAR championship to give Roger Penske two titles in the same season with a victory in Sunday’s winnertake-all finale at Phoenix Raceway.

It was the fourth win of the season for Logano, who opened the year with a January win in an exhibition race at the Coliseum in the debut of NASCAR’s new Next Gen car.

Less than a month later, rookie teammate Austin Cindric won the Daytona 500 on Penske’s 85th birthday.

Will Power added the IndyCar championship to the Team Penske trophy case in September and Logano’s dominating run Sunday marked the first time Penske won both the NASCAR and IndyCar championship in the same season.

It is the third Cup championship for Penske, who won with Brad Keselowski in 2012 and Logano’s first title in 2018. Logano joined Kyle Busch as the only active drivers with multiple Cup titles.

Logano won the pole and was never really challenged Sunday as his Ford led 186 of the 312 laps, and was not the highest running title contender for only one lap.

Ross Chastain finished third in his championship race debut, and Christopher Bell was 10th.

Chase Elliott was spun by Chastain early in the final stage, his Chevrolet hit the wall and he was immediately out of contention.

It snapped Hendrick Motorsports streak of two consecutive Cup titles.

Gibbs, 49, dies

Coy Gibbs, the vice chairman of Joe Gibbs Racing for his NFL and NASCAR Hall of Fame father, died Sunday morning just hours after his 20-year-old son, Ty, won the Xfinity Series championship. He was 49.

J.D. Gibbs died in 2019 of degenerative neurological disease and also was 49.