What Happened?
Even year strength — or luck — continued for Joey Logano after he stretched his fuel tank to earn his second win of the season Sunday afternoon (Oct. 20) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Logano did enough to secure his Championship 4 spot, finishing ahead of a hard-charging Christopher Bell.
Daniel Suarez also utilized the fuel-saving strategy to finish third, while William Byron and Alex Bowman finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Not only does Logano’s incredible even-year streak continue, but the driver of the No. 22 earned his fourth Las Vegas win. Logano has won at Las Vegas in four of the past six seasons.
What Really Happened?
In a format that emphasizes the importance of winning and advancing to the next round, Sunday’s race proved that the majority of teams still prioritize points.
A spinning Ty Gibbs brought out a timely caution to put teams on the brink of a full fuel run — barring another yellow, of course.
The race stayed green, and a strategy-splitting pit cycle defined the outcome of the race. First it was Chris Buescher. Then, it was Kyle Larson. Bowman, Bell and Byron soon followed, leaving Suarez in control of the race and about nine cars playing the fuel mileage game.
When the checkered waved, Bell had barely caught Suarez, and Logano had obviously found the front.
It’s easy to Monday morning crew chief, but why did Bell and Byron pit?
Again, hindsight is obvious, but before stops, Bell led Suarez by more than eight seconds, and he had nearly a 12-second gap on Logano. Byron held a six-second lead on Suarez and was almost 10 seconds up on Logano before his stop.
Before the race, both of these drivers put extra emphasis on how important winning was. The Round of 8 drivers are extremely close on talent, and drivers know the only surefire way to continue their championship fight would be with a victory.
Ultimately, this decision to pit was a safety net for the teams to maximize points instead of going for that championship key that Logano earned.
It all played out this way because of the many issues for the playoff drivers. When Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick came together in a bizarre accident, it put those two, as well as Ryan Blaney, in a massive hole relative to where the remaining drivers ran.
Then, Larson had more pit road issues, and Denny Hamlin ran poorly for most of the day, missing out on stage points as well.
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