Joey Logano was having a solid day even before his fuel gamble, but it was never supposed to end in victory. Entering the Round of 8, thanks to Alex Bowman's shocking disqualification the week prior, Logano looked like a real long shot to make the Championship 4.
But he's done it — locking himself in before title favorites Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell. Logano credits it as a total team effort. Crew chief Paul Wolfe, spotter Coleman Pressley, engineers Brandon 'Shaggy' Pope and Joseph Bisson, even fueler Nick Hensley -- he needed all of them to be able to pull this off.
"I don't think there's a team out there that works better together than Team Penske," declared Logano in his winner's press conference. "That is just in our DNA all the way through. That started years and years and years ago. I can't even take credit for being part of that."
What makes it even more impressive is that Logano only has six top-fives this year, and three of those are race wins.
The path to victory
Logano went into Sunday's race in tenth and steadily moved forward, ending Stage 1 in eighth place, and Stage 2 in fifth. When the pivotal caution flew for a spin by Ty Gibbs with 74 laps remaining, Logano was running eighth for what would be the final restart.
As most of the leaders chose to pit under green for a splash of fuel with about 40 laps left to run, Logano's team went in a different direction. He was not alone in this decision to try and stretch the field with playoff rival Denny Hamlin right behind him and Daniel Suarez four seconds up the road. Crucially, he was also a full lap ahead of Bell, who led those with fresh tires and a full load of fuel.
With 30 laps to go, a charging Bell was over 20 seconds behind Logano and Suarez, but Logano was quickly slashing away at that margin. He waited patiently, chipping away at Suarez's lead until he was given the green light to go. With a helpful push from his wounded teammate, Ryan Blaney, Logano began to close rapidly, easily passing Suarez with just six laps left in the race.
Last week, @joeylogano thought he was out of the playoffs before Bowman’s DQ.
— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) October 20, 2024
This week, the @Team_Penske driver just WON his way into the #Championship4 🏁 🤯
🎥 @NASCARonNBC pic.twitter.com/hRR5ruQ3do
It was the first lap Logano had led the entire race. But Bell was still forward and Logano was closing fast. With one more lap, Bell would have likely won the race no matter how much fuel Logano had on board, but the No. 22 team timed it perfectly. Logano crossed the line 0.662s ahead of a shocked Bell, locking himself into the final four.
"I was just focused on the information I was being fed," explained Logano. "I was going as fast as I felt comfortable going with saving fuel. I knew I couldn't waste time with Suarez. I knew I had to get by him. Took an extra lap longer than I wanted it to be. Was able to get by him in enough time. Felt like we were in good shape.
"I only knew that because of what Coleman [Pressley, spotter] was telling me up there. He is like, 'I think we are in good shape. He is not going to catch us if we keep doing what we are doing. As long as you don't get enough traffic friction by passing cars and not doing it efficiently, you're going to be able to stay ahead there.'
"The pace was starting to equal out as tires were wearing after a long run like that. That information made me pretty confident. I know Paul [Wolfe, crew chief] well enough now that when I hear it in his voice, he felt pretty confident we were going to make it on gas."
Logano has been here before, turning a 2022 win at Vegas into his second NASCAR Cup title. Just like this, he doesn't have to put any effort whatsoever into the rest of this round with all eyes now on Phoenix. "The next two weeks don't really matter," he declared. "It's the advantage that we earned. We know what that advantage is worth. It's a worth a lot. Our focus tomorrow morning will be on Phoenix, job to finish."
Should Logano prevail, he will be the first driver to ever win three titles under this format and just the tenth driver in history to ever win three or more.
