Joey Logano‘s win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to clinch a Championship 4 spot last Sunday (Oct. 20) may not have been much of a surprise by historical standards, but it was when considering his year-long performance in 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.
However, Logano’s capitalization on the opportunity was a follow-up act to what happened in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas the night prior (Oct. 19).
AJ Allmendinger quietly limped into the Round of 8 after finishing outside the top 10 twice in this year’s Round of 12.
But what started out as a whisper from the veteran entering the semi-final round quickly escalated into a roar when the dust settled in Vegas.
Allmendinger didn’t just win the race, he flat-out dominated.
In the first 29 races of the season, Allmendinger had led 147 laps, with 70 of those coming late in the regular season at Atlanta Motor Speedway. At Las Vegas, he nearly led three-quarters of that total in one setting, pacing the field for 102 of the 201 laps. A hard charge by Ryan Sieg was negated by a late caution, allowing Allmendinger to hold on and put the exclamation point on his biggest statement of the year.
Let’s be blunt. By the Los Gatos, Calif., native’s standards, 2024 had been a disappointment. With just three races remaining in the season, Allmendinger will have career-lows in nearly every category among his full-time Xfinity seasons. His seven top fives are less than half of his previous low (17), and his 12.8 average finish is three positions worse than his current low mark (9.2 in 2021).
Yet, what Allmendinger has been doing is something that we have seen several drivers accomplish across all three national series time after time: getting hot at the right time.
Logano is a perfect example at the Cup level, with his two titles being trademarks of that notion. In both of his title campaigns, the No. 22 team became dangerous by winning the opening race of the Round of 8, which allowed the team to invest more time into the setup for the championship race.
The same can be said now for Allmendinger and Kaulig Racing. No, he likely won’t enter Phoenix Raceway as the favorite, nor does winning at Las Vegas seal him as the driver to beat, but it definitely makes the competition squirm a little bit that the No. 16 team is ahead of the game.
Allmendinger’s win certainly turned the tide of his season, a common factor of the playoffs. But it didn’t come by an…
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