South Point 400: Joey Logano keeps even-year streak alive with Las Vegas win

Joey Logano’s even-year streak lives on. (Photo: Sean Gardner | Getty Images)

LAS VEGAS — After initially missing the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 8, Alex Bowman’s post-race disqualification at the Charlotte Roval proved to be the break Joey Logano needed as the Team Penske driver went on to punch his ticket to the Championship 4 after winning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Logano only led the final six laps of the South Point 400 as the driver of the No. 22 Pennzoil Ford used a long-run strategy to earn his third Cup Series victory of the 2024 season.

The victory also helped crew chief Paul Wolfe earn his 41st career win, which is now the most by any active crew chief in the Cup Series.

“Oh my gosh, it’s an incredible turn of events coming from what was at the end of last weekend and what it was like Sunday night after a couple hours after the race and to this Sunday,” Logano said. “This sport is just incredible. Things change, but what a team I’ve got. I stood out there at the start-finish line and it takes a total effort. Obviously, the car had to be pretty good. It was solid, but when you think about what it takes to win a fuel mileage race, you’ve got to have a good engine. You’ve got to have good engineers calculating stuff.

“You’ve got to have good communication communicating what they see and being able to make sure that I only gave up the right amount of spots on the racetrack and trying to get to the 99 in front and keep the 20 behind. Coleman, Paul, Joe, Nick Hensley, our gas man making sure it’s full. It takes everybody to do it, so we’re in the Championship 4 again. I’m so proud of this team. We just find a way and that’s what I’m most proud of. I said it as we entered this thing this week that we may be the underdogs, but I don’t think so anymore.”

Arguably, polesitter Christopher Bell had the best car, and led a race-high 155 of 267 laps after finishing second in Stage 1 and winning Stage 2. Bell went through the field after pitting and finished in second, just 0.662 seconds away from catching Logano.

“Just a bummer,” Bell said. “Everyone on this team did everything perfect today. This thing was obviously on rails, the pit crew did an amazing job, Adam (Stevens, crew chief) called an amazing race. We did everything we needed to put the Rheem Camry into Victory Lane, and unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be today.”

Bell has finished inside the top 10 in five straight races and in eight of the last nine races.

Two other drivers who had great points days were playoff driver William Byron after finishing fourth and earning 49 points. Martin Truex Jr. finished sixth and earned 49 points. Both drivers finished inside the top four in both stages.

Results from the 2024 South Point 400 are listed below:

Other Race Facts

With Joey Logano’s Las Vegas win, he has now clinched a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 in every even year since the format began in 2014. Logano won two Cup Series titles in 2018 and 2022, with his six appearances being the most by any driver.

Logano won the first race in the Round of 8 at Martinsville (2018) and Las Vegas (2022) in both of his championship-winning years. Logano also won at Kansas in 2020, which means he has won the first Round of 8 race in every even year since 2018.

A big accident toward the beginning of Stage 2 involved multiple Cup Series playoff drivers, including 2024 Regular Season Champion Tyler Reddick, who flipped over during a slide through the frontstretch grass.

Reddick leaves Sin City 30 points below the cut line, while 2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliott leaves 53 below the cut line.

Martin Truex Jr. has now led at least 500 laps for the 10th consecutive season. According to statistician Trey Ryan, he is the sixth driver in NASCAR history to accomplish this feat. He joins Richard Petty (17), Jimmie Johnson (15), Rusty Wallace (14), Darrell Waltrip (12) and Bobby Allison (10).

2023 Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney took a couple of hard hits this weekend, leading to complaints about headaches. During practice on Saturday, Blaney took a hard hit in which he radioed in saying his head hurt.

Blaney also took another hit during the South Point 400 that caused him to go multiple laps down as he complained about tooling damage.