NASCAR brings exciting playoff races to Las Vegas.
Joey Logano won Sunday’s NASCAR South Point 400 Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his third race of the season and second of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Logano advances to Championship 4 automatically with the win. Other playoff drivers, including Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney, were in a lot of trouble after all three were involved in lap 90 incidents.
Here are the winners and losers from Sunday’s Las Vegas NASCAR race.
PLAYOFF PICTURES:NASCAR playoff picture: Cup Series points standings after Las Vegas
HOW IT HAPPENED:Recap: NASCAR Cup Series in Las Vegas: Highlights, South Point 400 leaderboard
SUNDAY’S RESULTS:Who won the NASCAR Cup race in Las Vegas? The winner is Joey Logano plus complete results
Winner
William Byron
Byron has been a model of consistency this season, not having many bad days this season. Byron finished fourth in Sunday’s race, his 13th top-five finish and 18th top-10 finish of the season. He finds himself over the line with two races remaining in Round 8 and looking for his second Championship 4 appearance in as many seasons.
Denny Hamlin
Denny Hamlin had an adventurous day on pit road, including a pit stop where the No. 11 did not fully install the left rear tire before removing the jack. Hamlin stopped and backed his car into the pit box to safely mount the tires to avoid a penalty. Hamlin struggled to overcome the problem and finished eighth but found himself below the line with two races remaining in Round 8. However, he had success at Homestead-Miami and Martinsville.
Joey Logano
Logano was technically eliminated from the playoffs last weekend. He came back in after Alex Bowman’s disqualification at Charlotte and made the most of it, especially with crew chief Paul Wolfe calling the shots and winning Sunday’s race on fuel mileage. Logano earned his second win in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, and his third of the season, to advance to the Championship 4 for the sixth time since the playoff system was implemented in 2014.
Loser
REDDICK’S BIG FLIP:Tyler Reddick flips over at Las Vegas NASCAR race, damaging Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney
Christopher Bell
It’s hard to make the guy who finished second a “loser,” but Christopher Bell should have won this race. Bell led 156 laps on Sunday and made a pit stop with 37 laps remaining. Bell was able to drive the No. 1 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. His 20 was back in place to challenge for victory, but a traffic jam held him back and prevented him from winning the race. Simply put, a huge effort occurred for Bell.
Chase Elliott
Elliott had a rough day after being caught up in Reddick’s crash. Elliott suffered extensive damage to the right side of the No. 11 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. 9 was his after Reddick crashed into him in turn 4. Elliott complied with NASCAR’s Impaired Vehicle Policy by making minimum speed, taking the car to the garage to repair it and returning to the track. Elliott, who finished 33rd, is now eighth in the playoff standings, likely needing a win to advance.
Tyler Reddick
Reddick started in second and challenged Bell for the lead throughout the first stage. However, he appeared aggressive at the start of the second stage and tried to find a gap between Chase Elliott and the wall of Turn 4. The gap disappeared quickly. Reddick was pinned to the wall by Elliott, sending the No. 1 Toyota into a tailspin. Reddick’s 45 23XI onto the infield grass, hitting the quarter-mile paved track and flipping the car near the start-finish line. Reddick finished 36th in Sunday’s race after he impressively drove the damaged car to its pit stall.
Follow sportswriter Austin Chastain on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @ChastainAJ or contact him by email at achastain@gannett.com.
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