Who… should you be talking about after the race?
Had post-race inspection at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL gone just a little differently, Joey Logano would have been racing only to play the spoiler to the eight remaining playoff drivers. But thanks to Alex Bowman’s failed inspection, Logano found himself back in the hunt.
And after he won the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Logano will be racing for the champion’s spoils instead. Logano started 10th and his opening stages were … solid. Logano placed eighth and fifth in the openers, but his crew chief Paul Wolfe, the winningest active Cup Series crew chief, saw a chance for more than a solid finish.
Wolfe left Logano on the track when most of the field pitted in the final stretch. It was a gamble; an overtime finish could well have derailed the plan. But there was no caution, and Logano held off a charging Christopher Bell, who had the dominant car and roared back to the front after his own late pit stop, for the win. He’ll be looking for his third Cup title in three weeks time.
In classic Logano fashion, he’s used consistency to make it this far, and now has just one goal: to outpace three other drivers in the finale. He has made the championship four in every even-numbered year since the current format began in 2014. He said before the race that he isn’t superstitious about it, but here it is, 2024, and Logano’s back in it.
And don’t forget Daniel Suarez. Using the same strategy as Logano, Suarez led twice for 57 total laps and finished third on the day, a week after he was eliminated from contention. He didn’t have enough left in the tank (possibly literally) to fight Logano and Bell, but his rebound gives him some momentum to wrap up the year strong.
What… is the big question leaving this race in the rearview?
If life was as simple as good things happening to good people, this season would have been a lot kinder to Jimmie Johnson.
Neither racing nor life is simple, though, and his return to the driver’s seat on a limited schedule has been anything but kind. Johnson has struggled in the Next Gen. Sunday’s (Oct. 20) 28th-place finish ties his best of the year and is a success in that he finished the race instead of getting caught in something, but for the seven-time champion, can that really be called a success?
Is it time for Johnson to call it a career?
It’s been said that his poor finishes will…
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