NASCAR: Joey Logano wins his third Cup Sequence title with a victory at Phoenix

Joey Logano is a three-time Cup Sequence champion.

Logano took the lead from William Byron shortly after the NASCAR Cup Sequence championship race’s last restart on lap 260 and led the remainder of the way in which at Phoenix as he held off his Crew Penske teammate Ryan Blaney within the last laps.

“What a race, what a Crew Penske battle on the finish,” Logano mentioned after climbing from his automotive.

Logano’s third title places him in unique NASCAR firm. Simply 10 drivers have gained three or extra Cup Sequence titles. Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson all have seven. Jeff Gordon has 4 titles. And now Logano is tied with Lee Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip and Tony Stewart at three.

Logano’s title continues what has been a exceptional even-year streak. You must pencil him in for the 2026 Cup Sequence title. Logano’s earlier titles got here in 2018 and 2022 when he gained the season finales. He has additionally made the Championship 4 in each even-numbered 12 months since NASCAR instituted its last race winner-take-all playoff format in 2014.

“I do not know if I am the perfect driver, however I’ve the perfect staff,” Logano mentioned.

Blaney rapidly caught Logano after he handed William Byron for second however was unable to get to Logano’s bumper to aim a cross inside the ultimate 10 laps of the 312-lap race.

Logano began the race in second and led the second-most laps of any driver. Christopher Bell led a race-high 143 laps however Logano led 107 and clearly had the perfect automotive among the many 4 drivers racing for the title.

All 4 of these drivers completed within the prime six. Byron was third and Tyler Reddick completed sixth. In between them, Kyle Larson completed fourth and Bell was fifth.

The race featured simply 4 warning flags and two of these have been for stage breaks. The primary got here proper after the race started when Ty Gibbs clipped the wall after which one thing broke earlier than he slammed into the wall on the frontstretch. The second got here forward of the ultimate restart when Zane Smith crashed on lap 249.

Probably the most weird second of the day got here when the that lasted lower than six minutes. Because the race was set to start the second stage, the tempo automotive went to pit street too late and slammed into the sand barrels firstly of pit street. NASCAR officers needed to crimson flag the race to scrub up the sand that was spilled in entrance of pit street.

Let’s be actual, Logano and his No. 22 staff have been removed from the perfect in 2024. Although he gained 4 races, Logano’s common end of 17.6 ranked fifteenth amongst full-time Cup Sequence drivers and he had simply 12 top-10 finishes. 13 drivers had extra, together with three drivers who did not make the playoffs.

However Logano and his staff acquired three of these 4 wins once they wanted to. A victory in a chaotic race at Nashville over the summer season clinched a spot within the playoffs for the staff. Logano then gained the playoff opener at Atlanta to advance to the second spherical of the playoffs.

The second spherical wasn’t fairly, however Logano superior to the third spherical with an eighth-place end on the Charlotte Roval after which gained the primary race of the third spherical at Las Vegas to qualify for the title race.

1. Joey Logano

2. Ryan Blaney

3. William Byron

4. Kyle Larson

5. Christopher Bell

6. Tyler Reddick

7. Bubba Wallace

8. Chase Elliott

9. Chris Buescher

10. Daniel Suarez

11. Denny Hamlin

12. Noah Grayson