Joey Logano’s Late Gamble Takes Las Vegas Jackpot

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Monday Morning Pit Box. This brand new Frontstretch column takes a look at the crucial calls that shaped the outcome of Joey Logano’s win at the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and looks at how it all unfolded through the eyes of a crew chief (sometimes, we look at the calls made inside race control, too).

This week, the NASCAR Cup Series race in Vegas served as the first opportunity in the Round of 8 for playoff drivers to punch their ticket to the Championship 4. It was the second trip to the 1.5-mile oval during the 2022 season after a competitive debut with the Next Gen chassis here in March.

This race was also a nailbiter, coming down to a late gamble by Logano for four fresh tires. That led to a classic skirmish in the last few laps with Ross Chastain, both drivers fighting hard but clean for the race lead.

In the end, it was Logano who took home the jackpot, crew chief Paul Wolfe’s call with 25 laps to go paying off. Let’s start there.

Lap 242: Joey Logano pits for four tires

It turned out to be the race-winning move. When the seventh caution flew for a spin by Daniel Suarez, a dozen drivers chose to stay out on track to keep their track position. Justin Haley, William Byron and Noah Gragson, among others, opted to stay out while Logano joined the rest of the lead lap cars in choosing to dive down pit road for fresh rubber.

Wolfe and company pulled off a phenomenal pit stop, leaving Logano 13th for the restart. While the move initially cost him track position, the eighth and final caution of the race fell just a handful of laps later for Landon Cassill’s spin; by then, Logano had already passed a handful of cars.

Once the field bunched up once again, Logano hunted down the competition, closing in on race leader Chastain by lap 262 before passing him just three laps later. On older tires, Chastain just couldn’t keep up and the No. 22 eked out a 0.817-second margin of victory.

“All you want to do is get to the Championship 4 when the season starts and we got the team to do it,” Logano said in his post-race interview. “We’re racing for a Championship! Let’s go!”

Now that they’re locked into the title race, Logano and the No. 22 Team Penske Ford group can turn their attention to Phoenix Raceway in November and cruise through the next two weeks without having to worry about the point standings.

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