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Other Contenders See Their Chances Fade
By Stephen Furst
It was clear most of the afternoon that a Penske car would end up in victory lane at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Penske had two strong cars for a majority of the day, so it was no surprise that Joey Logano could get the job done for Roger Penske. With Logano restarting a few rows back on the final restart it seemed as though Ross Chastain would easily take the checkered flag and advance to the Championship Four, however Joey Logano was able to work through traffic and eventually clear the 2nd place car of Chase Briscoe. Once Logano was able to put the car of Briscoe behind him, he was able to gain upwards of 0.300 seconds per lap to not only track down the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing car of Ross Chastain, but also battle with him for position and make the pass for the win with less than 3 laps to go. After making his final pass on Chastain, Logano would not be caught and punch his ticket to a chance at the championship.
“Man, what a great car. Penske cars were all fast. All of them were really fast today. Oh, man, all you want to do is get to the Championship 4 when the season starts and race for a championship, and we’ve got the team to do it. I don’t see why we can’t win at this point”, said Logano after climbing from his No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang.
“Things are looking really good for us, awesome Pennzoil Mustang, this bad boy, and man, just a lot of adversity fought through the last 50 laps or so. I thought we were going to win and then we kind of fell out and then had the tires, and racing Ross was fun. He was doing a good job air blocking me, and just trying to be patient, and eventually I was like, I’ve got to go here. Just great to win out here in Vegas again, and it means so much getting to the championship.”
When asked about his decision making over the last few laps, Ross Chastain had this to say. “
Yeah, I don’t know. Just instinct takes over and it’s all camera based. Mike Reynolds is up in my ear from the top and just giving me information and coaching me, but I’m the one making my decisions and my moves. You know, I’m sure I can go back and find a few things, and to run the top there and let him get inside of me, I thought I had one more corner to do that, and he just got positioned on me there on the front stretch, and we were just really tight.”
A favorite to win most of the day, fellow Penske teammate Ryan Blaney did not fare so well. Hitting the backstretch wall and spinning into the inside wall with 40 laps to go, Blaney saw his chances at winning disappear as well as his position in the standings drop below the cut line.
Hometown favorite Kyle Busch also had a very eventful day, spinning through the tri-oval and losing a tire after a pit stop. However, with all the chaos in Busch’s day, he still managed to bring his M&Ms Toyota Camry home in 3rd position. Another driver fighting back for a top 5 finish was Chase Briscoe who would hang around the middle to rear of the field most of the day as a result of a car that just did not handle as he wanted it to. Chase wound up being a contender for the win in the closing laps, and wind up finished in 4th place. Denny Hamlin would round out the Top 5 with a 5th place finish.
Fans would also see some non-racing excitement on the track during the second stage after an on-track mishap between the No. 5 of Kyle Larson and the No. 45 of Bubba Wallace. Larson got a good run down the back stretch and dove into turn 3 on Lap 94 to make it three-wide. Upon clearing the car in the middle groove, Larson got loose and drifted up the track, and forcing Wallace into the outside wall. Instead of keeping his car going, Wallace would chase Larson’s car across the track to hook his right rear, ending the day for both drivers. After climbing from his car, Bubba Wallace walked across the infield to show Larson his displeasure and became physical with the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Cars Chevrolet.
“When you get shoved in the fence, deliberately like he did, trying to force me to lift – the steering was gone, and he just so happened to be there,” Wallace said after the wreck. “I hate it for our team. We had a super-fast car – not on short-run speed, we were kind of falling back there and Larson wanted to make it a three-wide dive bomb.”
“He never cleared me. I don’t lift. I know I’m kind of new to running up front, but I don’t lift. I wasn’t even in a spot to lift, he never lifted either and now we are junk.”
Larson saw things a little differently and even admitted to being at partially at fault for getting Wallace into the wall. “I got in low, got loose and chased it up a bit and he got up to my right front and got tight,” Larson said. “I knew he was going to retaliate. He had a reason to be mad but his race wasn’t over until he retaliated. Just aggression turned into frustration.”
Unfortunately, this would also end the day for championship contender Christopher Bell who was tangled up in the crash. Bell would bring his car to pit road for fixes but would end up running out of time on the DVP. Bell would also end the day below the cut line in the championship standings. Chase Elliott, who came into the day at the top of the standings could never quite find the right setup to have the speed to run up front. His day would end with a 21st place finish and drop him to 3rd, 17 points above the cut line.
NASCAR Cup Series Race – 5th Annual South Point 400
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas, Nevada
Sunday, October 16, 2022
1. (5) Joey Logano (P), Ford, 267.
2. (11) Ross Chastain (P), Chevrolet, 267.
3. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 267.
4. (16) Chase Briscoe (P), Ford, 267.
5. (31) Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, 267.
6. (1) Tyler Reddick, Chevrolet, 267.
7. (27) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 267.
8. (22) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 267.
9. (21) AJ Allmendinger(i), Chevrolet, 267.
10. (10) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 267.
11. (17) Noah Gragson(i), Chevrolet, 267.
12. (13) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 267.
13. (3) William Byron (P), Chevrolet, 267.
14. (28) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 267.
15. (12) Chris Buescher, Ford, 267.
16. (6) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 267.
17. (25) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 267.
18. (23) Aric Almirola, Ford, 267.
19. (15) Michael McDowell, Ford, 267.
20. (24) Cole Custer, Ford, 267.
21. (20) Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, 267.
22. (19) Ty Gibbs(i), Toyota, 267.
23. (29) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 267.
24. (30) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 267.
25. (35) Todd Gilliland #, Ford, 267.
26. (8) Harrison Burton #, Ford, 266.
27. (34) Cody Ware, Ford, 264.
28. (4) Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 260.
29. (2) Austin Cindric #, Ford, 259.
30. (36) BJ McLeod(i), Ford, 256.
31. (26) JJ Yeley(i), Ford, 253.
32. (32) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, Accident, 246.
33. (33) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, Suspension, 237.
34. (7) Christopher Bell (P), Toyota, DVP, 94.
35. (14) Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, Accident, 94.
36. (9) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, Accident, 94.
