Logano takes Vegas Cup win with late pass, advances to title race

Chastain took the field three-wide on a restart with 16 of 267 laps to move into the lead but Logano – among a group of cars that had pit for new tires during the previous caution – was coming up fast through the field.

Logano finally caught Chastain with two laps to go and easily made his way around him to reclaim the lead and held on by 0.817 seconds for the victory.

With the win, Logano automatically advances to the Championship 4 at Phoenix and will compete for the 2022 series title regardless of how he finishes in the next two races – next weekend at Homestead, Fla., and Oct. 30 at Martinsville, Va.

The driver who has won the first race of the semifinal round of the playoffs has gone on to win the championship in three of the last four seasons.

“We’re running for a championship – let’s go,” Logano said after exiting his No. 22 Ford. “The Penske cars were all really fast today. All you want to do is get to the Championship 4 when the season starts and race for a championship and we’ve got the team to do it. I don’t see why we can’t win at this point.

“Things are looking really good for us, and man, just a lot of adversity fought through the last 50 laps or so. I thought we were going to win and then we kind of fell out and then had the tires, and racing Ross was fun.

“He was doing a good job air blocking me, and just trying to be patient, and eventually I was like, ‘I’ve got to go here.’ Just great to win out here in Vegas again, and it means so much getting to the championship.”

Kyle Busch finished third, Chase Briscoe rebounded from a lap down to finish fourth and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-five.

Completing the top-10 were Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr., Erik Jones, A.J. Allmendinger and Austin Dillon.

With two races remaining in the semifinal round of the playoffs, the four drivers lowest in points and in danger of elimination are William Byron, Briscoe, Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell.

Both Blaney and Bell were involved in wrecks in Sunday’s race.

Stage 3

During the break between Stages 2 and 3, the lead-lap cars all pit with Logano first off pit road. Ty Gibbs was penalized for speeding on pit road and had to restart from the rear of the field. Daniel Suarez was forced to pit twice to tighten a wheel.

When the race returned to green on Lap 172, Logano led the way followed by Hamlin, Blaney and Chastain.

J.J. Yeley spun off Turn 4 and slid into the frontstretch on Lap 194 to bring out the fifth caution of the race.

The lead-lap cars all pit with Chastain the first off pit road. Logano had a slow stop as his team appeared to have trouble adding fuel.

On the restart on Lap 200, Chastain was followed by Blaney, Byron and Kevin Harvick.

Austin Cindric hit the wall in Turn 2 on Lap 207 and was forced to pit under green for repairs to his No. 2 Ford.

With 50 laps remaining, Chastain had built a 1.2-second lead over Aric Almirola with Blaney close behind in third.

While running second, Blaney washed up the track in Turns 1-2, hit the wall, then slid down the backstretch and hit the inside wall to bring out the caution.

The lead-lap cars all pit with Haley first off pit road thanks to a two-tire pit call. After his stop, Busch had the left-front wheel come off his No. 18 Toyota, which will likely result in a four-week suspension for his crew chief.

On the restart on Lap 233, Justin Haley was followed by Chastain, Almirola and Byron.

Suarez spun off Turn 4 and slid down the frontstretch on Lap 240 which brought out the seventh caution of the race.

Several drivers elected to pit but Haley remained on the track and in the lead on the restart with 22 to go. He was followed by Briscoe, Reddick, Chastain and Harvick. Logano, the first off pit road among those who pit, restarted 13th.

Just after Briscoe cleared Haley for the lead on the restart, NASCAR displayed the caution again as Landon Cassill wrecked in Turn 4.

Byron elected to pit for new tires during the caution. On the restart on Lap 252, Briscoe led the way followed by Haley, Chastain, Truex and Allmendinger.

Chastain took the field three-wide after the restart on the inside of Turn 3 and reclaimed the lead as Briscoe dropped to second.

With two laps to go, Logano caught Chastain and cleanly passed him for the lead.

Stage 2

Blaney held off teammate Logano by 1.5 seconds to take the win in an eventful Stage 2.

Suarez was third, Chastain was fourth and Hamlin – who took two new tires on his last pit stop – rounded out the top-five.

During the break between Stages 1 and 2, the lead-lap cars all pit with Bubba Wallace first off pit road.

On the restart on Lap 86, Wallace was followed by Suarez, Logano and Truex.

Suarez powered to the lead on the restart as Chastain moved into second and Wallace dropped to third.

On Lap 95, Kyle Larson ran up into Wallace and knocked him into the wall. As Wallace came back down the track, he slammed into Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet, leaving both cars knocked out of the race.

After exiting his car, Wallace walked over to Larson’s wrecked car and the two got into a brief shoving match on the frontstretch before they were separated. Playoff driver Bell was also collected in the incident on the track.

All the lead-lap cars pit with Hamlin the first off pit road. On the restart on Lap 103, Hamlin led Suarez and Logano.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Briscoe wrecked on the frontstretch on Lap 104 to put the race back under caution just after Suarez passed Hamlin for the lead.

The race returned to green on Lap 108 with Suarez out front and followed by Hamlin, Chastain and Logano.

Chastain quickly powered to the lead on the restart.

With 40 laps remaining in the stage, Blaney moved into second as Suarez dropped to third.

Blaney went to the inside of Chastain in Turn 3 on Lap 129 to grab the lead.

With 10 laps to go, Blaney had built a 1.9-second lead over Logano while Suarez moved back up to third.

Stage 1

Wallace claimed the Stage 1 win over Logano under caution as Busch spun off Turn 4 just before the conclusion of the 80-lap stage.

Suarez was third, Bell fourth and Blaney rounded out the top-five.

Reddick started on the pole and race side-by-side with Cindric for two laps until he cleared for the lead on Lap 3.

With 50 laps remaining in the first stage, Reddick held a small but steady lead over Cindric as Blaney moved up to third.

On Lap 34, Cindric cleared Reddick in Turns 1-2 to take the lead just as a handful of cars hit pit road to kick off a round of green-flag pit stops.

Cindric pit on Lap 40 and Keselowski overshot his pit stall while making his stop.

Once the cycle of stops was completed on Lap 42, Suarez moved into the lead followed by Wallace and Logano.

Wallace went to the inside of Suarez in Turn 4 on Lap 57 to take the lead for the first time in the race.

Logano ran down Suarez on Lap 63 to move into the runner-up position behind Wallace.

With 10 laps to go, Wallace maintained a small lead over Logano and put playoff driver Briscoe one lap down.

On Lap 78, Busch spun off Turn 4 and slid into the frontstretch grass to bring out the first caution of the race. Briscoe received the free pass and moved back to the lead lap.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Laps Led
1	22	Joey Logano		Ford	267	3:04'09.615			32
2	1	Ross Chastain		Chevrolet	267	3:04'10.432	0.817	0.817	68
3	18	Kyle Busch		Toyota	267	3:04'10.648	1.033	0.216
4	14	Chase Briscoe		Ford	267	3:04'11.677	2.062	1.029	6
5	11	Denny Hamlin		Toyota	267	3:04'13.047	3.432	1.370	5
6	8	Tyler Reddick		Chevrolet	267	3:04'13.390	3.775	0.343	32
7	19	Martin Truex Jr.		Toyota	267	3:04'14.162	4.547	0.772
8	43	Erik Jones		Chevrolet	267	3:04'14.647	5.032	0.485
9	16	A.J. Allmendinger		Chevrolet	267	3:04'14.716	5.101	0.069
10	3	Austin Dillon		Chevrolet	267	3:04'15.338	5.723	0.622
11	48	Noah Gragson		Chevrolet	267	3:04'15.755	6.140	0.417
12	4	Kevin Harvick		Ford	267	3:04'16.042	6.427	0.287
13	24	William Byron		Chevrolet	267	3:04'16.692	7.077	0.650
14	31	Justin Haley		Chevrolet	267	3:04'16.772	7.157	0.080	16
15	17	Chris Buescher		Ford	267	3:04'17.590	7.975	0.818
16	99	Daniel Suarez		Chevrolet	267	3:04'17.991	8.376	0.401	31
17	6	Brad Keselowski		Ford	267	3:04'18.154	8.539	0.163
18	10	Aric Almirola		Ford	267	3:04'18.303	8.688	0.149
19	34	Michael McDowell		Ford	267	3:04'18.572	8.957	0.269
20	41	Cole Custer		Ford	267	3:04'19.439	9.824	0.867
21	9	Chase Elliott		Chevrolet	267	3:04'19.476	9.861	0.037
22	23	Ty Gibbs		Toyota	267	3:04'19.485	9.870	0.009
23	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.		Chevrolet	267	3:04'20.763	11.148	1.278	1
24	7	Corey Lajoie		Chevrolet	267	3:04'21.618	12.003	0.855
25	38	Todd Gilliland		Ford	267	3:04'21.997	12.382	0.379
26	21	Harrison Burton		Ford	266	3:04'23.673	1 Lap	1 Lap
27	51	Cody Ware		Ford	264	3:04'27.750	3 Laps	2 Laps
28	12	Ryan Blaney		Ford	260	3:04'41.096	7 Laps	4 Laps	39
29	2	Austin Cindric		Ford	259	3:04'18.739	8 Laps	1 Lap	8
30	78	B.J. McLeod		Ford	256	3:04'34.116	11 Laps	3 Laps
31	15	J.J. Yeley		Ford	253	3:04'19.137	14 Laps	3 Laps
32	77	Landon Cassill		Chevrolet	246	2:49'28.233	21 Laps	7 Laps
33	42	Ty Dillon		Chevrolet	237	2:39'31.215	30 Laps	9 Laps
34	20	Christopher Bell		Toyota	94	56'44.214	173 Laps	143 Laps
35	5	Kyle Larson		Chevrolet	94	56'44.785	173 Laps	0.571
36	45	Bubba Wallace		Toyota	94	56'45.038	173 Laps	0.253	29