Hell hath no fury like Joey Logano in an even-numbered year.
The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford made the most of his new playoff life, going 73 laps on one fuel tank to win the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and punch his ticket to the Championship 4.
Logano has made the Championship 4 in every even-numbered year since the inception of the current playoff format in 2014.
A Tale of 2 Pit Strategies at the End
As aforementioned, pit strategy played a big part in the thrill of victory for Logano and the agony of defeat for Christopher Bell.
It all began when the race’s fifth and final caution came out on lap 194 for Ty Gibbs spinning on the backstretch. This brought all of the lead lap cars down pit road with 73 laps left, just a bit beyond the projected fuel window of 62-67 laps.
As the final green flag run progressed, the field began to splinter in strategy, with some opting to stretch the fuel tank to the end while others pitted about halfway through the run for fresh tires. Logano and No. 22 crew chief Paul Wolfe opted to roll the dice on fuel, while No. 20 crew chief Adam Stevens called Bell to the pit stall on lap 229.
This set the stage to see which strategy would win the day in the desert. At first, it looked as though Daniel Suarez would reach victory lane one race after his Round of 12 elimination. But then the superior speed in Logano’s Ford kicked in, passing Suarez’s Chevrolet with only six laps remaining.
From there, it was a matter of Logano holding off the considerably faster Bell to take the checkered flag, despite the latter leading 155 of the 267 laps. On pit road afterwards, Bell rued the No. 20 team’s missed opportunity to win their way to Phoenix.
“It was going to take the right move to get by [Logano],” Bell said of the closing laps. “We had a win right in our fingertips.”
If the race had been the South Point 405, then there’s a good chance Stevens’ strategy call works and Bell wins the race. But with such a dominant car, the No. 20 team might have been better served to stretch the fuel like Logano and maintain the dominant track position they held most of the day.
Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson Bounce Back From Pit Road Peril
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In particular, Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 team had an…
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