Race report
NASCAR Cup Homestead
Joey Logano beats Truex to win 2018 NASCAR Cup Series title
Move over “Big 3” – you have to add a fourth: Joey Logano is the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion.
Jim Utter
Edited: Nov 19, 2018, 2:02 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Logano passed leader Martin Truex Jr. with 12 of 267 laps remaining and held on to win Sunday’s Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, capturing his first career series championship.
The win was the third of the season for Logano, who was overshadowed much of the year by his fellow title contenders Truex, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch (who combined for 20 wins).
Read Also:
"We did it! We won the championship! I can’t believe it," Logano said. "I don't know what to say. This team, (owner) Roger Penske, (crew chief) Todd Gordon, the pit crew. Oh my God.
"They gave me the car I needed at the end to do my job. Put me in position to do my job. I couldn’t be more proud of them. We won the championship! Oh my God!”
Logano, as he had said all week, repeated that he never considered himself the underdog in the championship race.
"I told you we weren’t and showed you why were not. We were the favorite like I told you before the race started. I am so proud of everybody for rising to the occasion. We executed down the stretch like nobody’s business," he said.
"We got Ford not only the drivers championship but the manufacturers’ championship. I can’t wait to break that Mustang out.”
Asked to describe he emotions when he came to the checkered flag, Logano said: "Just a lot of screaming. I think I pulled a muscle. Man, I worked my whole life to get here. To win a championship. We have been so close.
"It has been 10 seasons of fighting for this. I wasn’t sure we were going to get it but Todd made a good adjustment at the end and we had that no quit attitude.”
Truex ended up second in the race, Harvick was third and Kyle Busch fourth and the Championship 4 swept the top four positions.
Logano’s teammate, Brad Keselowski, rounded out the top-five.
The championship is also the first for Ford Motor Co. in the Cup series since 2004 (Kurt Busch won with Roush Fenway Racing).
“This means so much for Ford Motor Company and all of our employees that work so hard. I just can’t believe this right now," said Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Performance. "We have worked so hard for the last three years to build up the program and to have this 2018 season and have 19 wins, the manufacturers’ championship and the drivers championship.
"It is incredible to have the company achieve this with the help of our partners, Team Penske and Roush Yates Engines. It is incredible.”
Stage 3
Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, Logano was first off pit road followed by Harvick, Truex, Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson. The final stage went green on Lap 167.
Logano went to the inside of Harvick and reclaimed the lead exiting Turn 4 on the restart. Truex moved into second and Harvick dropped to third.
With 77 laps left in the race, Logano held a small lead over Larson, with Truex in third, Harvick fourth and Kyle Busch running fifth.
With 74 to go, Larson – while running in second – hit the wall twice and fell off the pace, doing significance damage to his No. 42 Chevrolet.
All of the lead-lap cars elected to pit with Logano once again the first off pit road, followed by Truex, Harvick and Hamlin. Kyle Busch had another slow stop and lined up ninth on the restart with 68 to go.
With 65 to go, Logano held a small advantage over Truex with Harvick in third. Kyle Busch moved up to fifth.
All four title contenders ran in the top four with 60 laps remaining in the season finale as Logano maintain a 1.2-second lead over Truex.
With 49 laps remaining, Truex got around Logano to take the lead for the first time in the race. Harvick ran third and Kyle Busch was fifth.
Truex opened up a 1.7-second lead over Loganp with 40 laps left in the race. Harvick remained in third while Kyle Busch ran fifth.
A final round of green-flag pit stops kicked off with Harvick heading to pit road with 37 laps remaining. Truex and Logano soon followed on the next lap. Kyle Busch remained on the track.
Truex had a slow pit stop as his No. 78 Toyota fell off the jack before the tire was on.
Before Bush elected to pit, Brad Keselowski got into Daniel Suarez and sent him spinning into the infield and brought out a caution.
All of the lead-lap cars pit with Kyle Busch first off pit road, followed by fellow title contenders Truex, Logano and Harvick. The race returned to green with 15 to go.
Logano powered into the lead with 12 to go.
Read Also:
- Kyle Larson beats Harvick for Stage 2 win at Homestead
- Title contender Kevin Harvick cruises to Stage 1 win at Homestead
Cla # Driver 4506 Laps Time Laps Led 1 22 
Joey Logano Ford 267 80 2 78 
Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 267 1.725 20 3 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 267 3.735 58 4 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 267 5.566 21 5 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 267 6.174 6 6 
Matt Kenseth Ford 267 7.150 7 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 267 8.140 8 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 267 8.155 9 10 
Aric Almirola Ford 267 9.227 10 41 
Kurt Busch Ford 267 9.744 11 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 267 11.313 12 11 
Denny Hamlin Toyota 267 11.983 41 13 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 267 12.223 45 14 48 
Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 267 12.803 15 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 267 13.283 16 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 267 14.241 17 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 267 16.264 18 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 267 18.744 19 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 266 1 lap 20 38 David Ragan Ford 266 1 lap 21 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 266 1 lap 22 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 266 1 lap 23 37 
Chris Buescher Chevrolet 266 1 lap 24 24 
William Byron Chevrolet 266 1 lap 25 21 Paul Menard Ford 265 2 laps 26 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 264 3 laps 27 20 Erik Jones Toyota 264 3 laps 28 34 Michael McDowell Ford 263 4 laps 2 29 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 263 4 laps 30 19 
Daniel Suarez Toyota 262 5 laps 31 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 262 5 laps 32 23 J.J. Yeley Ford 261 6 laps 33 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 259 8 laps 34 72 Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 259 8 laps 35 51 B.J. McLeod Ford 256 11 laps 36 99 Kyle Weatherman Chevrolet 256 11 laps 37 66 Timmy Hill Toyota 254 13 laps 38 97 Tanner Berryhill Toyota 254 13 laps 39 95 Regan Smith Chevrolet 240 27 laps
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Kyle Larson beats Harvick for Stage 2 win at Homestead
Next article Martin Truex Jr. comes one position short of repeating title
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jim Utter
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
More from
Kevin Harvick
The most unexpected driver and team breakups in modern NASCAR Cup history
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
The most unexpected driver and team breakups in modern NASCAR Cup history
The wildest fights in modern NASCAR Cup history
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Bristol II
The wildest fights in modern NASCAR Cup history
Kevin Harvick’s message to Carson Hocevar: ‘Do not change’
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Pocono
Kevin Harvick’s message to Carson Hocevar: ‘Do not change’
Latest news
The six drivers doing double duty in Portimao GTWCE and Barcelona WEC this weekend
WEC
WEC WEC
Barcelona
16 min
The six drivers doing double duty in Portimao GTWCE and Barcelona WEC this weekend
Into the unknown: What to expect from WEC's Barcelona debut
WEC
WEC WEC
Barcelona
1 h
Into the unknown: What to expect from WEC's Barcelona debut
Josh Pierson earns IndyCar license approval following IMS road course evaluation test
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 1 h
Josh Pierson earns IndyCar license approval following IMS road course evaluation test
Christian Horner opens up on Red Bull F1 exit: “Perhaps it was perceived I had too much influence over the team”
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 2 h
Christian Horner opens up on Red Bull F1 exit: “Perhaps it was perceived I had too much influence over the team”
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe