Maybe there is something to this “even year” mojo after all. Joey Logano, after catching a break thanks to a disqualification earlier in the playoffs, rode the wave all the way to the top of NASCAR’s mountain, grabbing his third Cup Series title. That puts him in elite company as only the 10th driver to notch three championships, and in true Logano fashion, each one landed in an even-numbered year.
“Man, three of them, that’s really special to get that,” Logano said. “What a team. To fight through today, we went through a little bit of adversity throughout the race.”
Team Penske may not have had outright speed this season, but Logano and crew knew how to wring every drop from every opportunity. At Phoenix, that’s exactly what they did. Logano’s Penske teammate Ryan Blaney, last year’s champion, showed up as the fastest car in the final 30 laps, hunting Logano down, who had taken the lead at lap 260. With 21 to go, it was a Penske duel for the ages. Blaney closed in, tightening to within half a second with 8 laps left, then .217 back with 5 to go. On the white flag lap, Blaney made one last lunge but fell short by .330 of a second. Blaney nearly collapsed after getting out of his car after the race.
“Yeah, just worn out really and just couldn’t quite get there,” Blaney said his voice hoarse. “And tried really hard to do so, just restart didn’t really work out and just got too far away from me and took me a while to pass a couple guys and just could never get by Joey. Yeah, ran out of time.”
William Byron made a late-race, all-or-nothing move that almost stuck, finishing third.
“I felt like we gave it all we had, and that’s something to be proud of,” Byron said. “We just didn’t have enough to go fight with the Penske guys.”
Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell rounded out the top five, while Tyler Reddick, the fourth championship contender battled all day to scrape up a sixth-place finish.
“It was a good year for us and everyone at 23XI to get to the Championship 4 and have a shot at it was nice,” Reddick said. “But yeah, we’ve got to get a little bit better here in Phoenix. Obviously we’re heavily motivated to do that knowing the championship is decided here.”
Logano looked like the 2022 version of himself, ruthless and efficient. He snatched the lead on lap 9 from polesitter Martin Truex Jr. after an early caution for Ty Gibbs, who hammered the wall on the first lap. Logano cruised to a Stage 1 win but slipped back to fourth after a sluggish pit stop, with Chase Elliott leading off pit road, followed by Bell and Byron.
In classic NASCAR unpredictability, as the field lined up for the green at the start of Stage 2, the pace car tried to dive onto pit road a bit too late, skidded sideways, and whacked the sand barrels at pit entry. Cue a six-minute red flag cleanup.
Blaney took the spotlight for Stage 2, grabbing the lead after a round of green-flag stops and securing the stage win. Both Blaney and Logano lost track position in the pits, putting Bell back in the lead when racing resumed. The first half felt like high-speed chess, with long green-flag runs ratcheting up the tension. Bell was out to prove a point, while Blaney, Byron, and Logano kept close behind. Reddick, lurking in the top 10, finally muscled his way up to join the title contenders.
The final round of scheduled stops kicked off with 77 laps to go, with Bell and Logano hitting pit road first, followed by Blaney and Reddick. Byron gambled, staying out and hoping for a miracle caution—and he nearly got it. When he finally pitted on lap 248, Zane Smith spun a lap later, bringing out the fourth caution. Byron restarted up front, but Logano snatched the lead almost immediately, sealing the deal.
Bell, who had a race high143 laps led, but was left empty-handed, finishing fifth. After being denied a shot at the championship at Martinsville, he came to Phoenix determined to send a message and for much of the race looked unstoppable. But a caution with 54 to go set off a chain reaction that buried his hopes.
“We definitely lost the handle of it on that last run,” Bell said. “I knew that I was getting a little bit worse compared to the competition as the race went. We needed to take a step and make it a little bit better, and it seemed like I got a little bit slower in the end.”
And as for Martin Truex Jr., this was his swan song as a full-time driver. A quiet finish in 17th may not have been the storybook ending, but he can ride into the sunset knowing he left it all on the track.
“Oh man,” Truex said. “I wanted it to go better than that. We were pretty good early and then lost track position and then the track just continued to rubber up and get hotter. At least that’s what I felt like it was doing.”
In true Phoenix fashion, it was a battle from start to finish, and for Joey Logano, yet another even-numbered year magic trick.
“The amount of work and effort that went into building this race car right here, the amount of time, I don’t think anyone works harder than us,” Logano said. “We were up at 6:00 in the morning this morning going over stuff. The guys just want it bad. I’m glad we delivered. “
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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