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Joey Logano surpasses Christopher Bell to win the NASCAR playoff race in Las Vegas

Posted on by Vanessa
Joey Logano surpasses Christopher Bell to win the NASCAR playoff race in Las Vegas

The first race of the third round of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs proved to be a tough ride for several championship contenders, but not for Joey Logano, who hit home Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Logano won the South Point 400, becoming the first driver to secure a spot in the championship race. The two-time series champion beat Christopher Bell to the finish by 0.662 seconds after starting the race in tenth place. Bell started from pole and won the second stage while finishing second in the opening stage.

The last two races were crazy for Logano, who was the last playoff driver to reach the third round. The Team Penske driver only advanced to the Round of 8 after Alex Bowman was disqualified following last week's race in Charlotte. Logano now has a chance to compete for his third championship in the last seven seasons after winning Cup Series titles in 2018 and 2022.

“It's an incredible turn of events after the end of last weekend and Sunday evening – a few hours after the race and leading up to this Sunday. This sport is simply incredible. Things change, but what a team I have,” Logano said.

“It takes everyone to do it, so we’re back in the Championship 4,” Logano continued. “I am so proud of this team. We just find a way and that’s what I’m most proud of. Going into this this week I said we might be the underdogs, but I don't believe that anymore.”

At the other end of the spectrum, three playoff drivers saw their luck turn against them in Las Vegas: Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney were each involved in accidents on the 90th lap after the Stage 2 restart.

Elliott made contact with Martin Truex Jr. and collected Reddick and Brad Keselowski. Reddick suffered the worst incident when his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota spun through the infield and hit the hood before overturning again. While Reddick somehow managed to avoid injury and drive the car back to pit road, the vehicle damage was too extensive to repair and Reddick's race was over. He finished 35th out of 37 drivers

Elliott also suffered extensive damage but was able to remain in the race, although the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports team was forced to take the Chevrolet back to the shop for repairs a few laps later. Elliott eventually returned to the race and finished the race in 33rd place, 37 laps down.

Blaney was not involved in this incident, but crashed further back in the field on the same lap and hit the wall hard after spinning trying to avoid contact. Blaney's No. 12 Team Penske crew was able to repair its Ford, but Blaney finished the race eight laps behind in 32nd place.

After Logano and Bell, Daniel Suarez, who was eliminated in Charlotte last weekend, finished third. William Byron, still in contention for the championship, finished fourth, with Hendrick's teammate Bowman following in fifth. Truex, Ross Chastain, playoff driver Denny Hamlin, John Hunter Nemechek and Chris Buescher rounded out the top 10.

SOUTH POINT 400: Check out the full results from Sunday's race in Las Vegas

The playoffs will now take place next Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway before the final elimination race at Martinsville Speedway in two weeks. After Martinsville, the playoff field will be halved so that the final four can fight for the championship on November 10th at Phoenix Raceway.

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