Who… should you be talking about after the race?
Entering the championship race and 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season finale at Phoenix Raceway, Kyle Busch was the only driver in the field with multiple titles to his name. By the end of the day, there was another driver on that short list: Joey Logano. He beat teammate Ryan Blaney for the race win and Ross Chastain for the title and celebrated with his son Hudson, who was an infant when he won the 2018 crown.
Logano came loaded for bear, winning the pole and leading 187 of 312 laps on the way to his second championship. The oldest driver in the title race at 32, Logano used his experience to run his race, not worrying about his competitors. He didn’t get in a position where his aggressive style could get him in trouble, and his pit crew executed each stop precisely as they needed to.
It was, perhaps, not the most exciting championship race, but Logano ran a mature, smart race from the start. He’s been quietly consistent this year, a season in which consistency was hard to come by. He may not have pulled a last-minute, must-win victory out of his pocket, but that’s because he didn’t put himself in position to need to. He didn’t make the highlight reels with a desperation thriller, because he never needed to.
Logano’s title run might not be much of a storybook, but the ending sure was.
Our hearts. 🥺@joeylogano celebrated the championship with his son, Hudson. #TeamJL 🏁 pic.twitter.com/zDDavg4EKt
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) November 6, 2022
And don’t forget Chastain. The now-infamous “Hail Melon” pass at Martinsville Speedway aside, Chastain put together a season that is the stuff of storybooks. Nearly out of NASCAR after a full-time deal fell through, Chastain raced for underfunded Spire Motorsports and a year for Chip Ganassi Racing before landing his seat in the Trackhouse Racing Team No. 1 this season.
If nobody expected much from Trackhouse or Chastain before the season started, you can’t really blame them; the team had not won a race and neither of its drivers had won at the Cup level. By summer, that had all changed with both Chastain and Daniel Suarez recording their first wins.
Chastain was a threat everywhere, though he had to learn to control his aggression after tangling with a few of his rivals. His first playoff berth led to the second, third and then championship rounds, with his desperation play to make the final cut the stuff of legend.
On Sunday,…
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