Written by Adrian Beecher
Las Vegas, NV – Joey Logano punched his ticket to the 2019 NASCAR Playoffs after driving his No. 22 Pennzoil Ford into victory lane after taking the checkered flag in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday.
Logano led 86 of the 267 laps of the race; the only driver to lead more was pole sitter and last years winner, Kevin Harvick. Early on, Harvick was the dominant car, winning the first stage.
However, Logano was the winner of the 2nd stage and took over the lead 7 different times in the race.
His rival Kyle Busch was looking for the sweep after winning the Xfinity and Truck race earlier in the weekend. However, on lap 129, Busch was penalized for speeding while entering pit road. This forced him to serve a pass-through penalty and spend the final 29 laps working to get back on the lead lap.
This took a lot out of Busch, forcing him to work back through traffic in the final stage. Meanwhile, Logano and his teammate Brad Keselowski were battling for the lead as we got down to the end of the final 40 laps.
Keselowski took the lead from Logano with 27 laps to go. Busch was still working and up to 4th with 25 laps to go, 2.5-seconds behind the leader. Then two laps later, Logano made the pass on Keselowski for the lead.
Busch was able to pass Kevin Harvick for 3rd but was unable to catch up to Logano and Keselowski. The two of them fought for the win, with Logano holding off his teammate in the final laps.
“Yeah, that was more intense than I wanted it to be.” said Logano “There’s been plenty of times here when we’ve led a lot of laps. And by stats, this is probably our best racetrack or close to it. And we’ve never won it and that’s the most important stat to have. Usually, something happens the last run and Brad gets a little better for some reason. The last pit stop they make him a good change and he becomes the fastest car and he wins. He’s done that here plenty of times. I looked in my mirror and I was like oh my gosh this is happening again!”
Able to hold off Keselowski, it marked the 22nd career win for Logano as he ties Terry Labonte for 35th all-time in Cup Series wins.
“It’s an amazing accomplishment! Texas Terry man!” said an excited Logano of tying Labonte, “I remember growing up and I had a Terry Labonte die cast. Remember they had the bigger ones? I had one. And I thought that was really cool, I was always about the Frosted Flakes Man!”
The NASCAR Cup Series will now set their sights on Phoenix Raceway, race number two of the three-race trip to the West Coast.
