Joey Logano was fading late and Staff Penske teammate Ryan Blaney was closing quick in a dramatic showdown at Phoenix. Blaney battled his means by the Hendrick Motorsports drivers of Kyle Larson and William Byron earlier than slicing away on the 2.3-second margin to Logano.
He nearly bought to his again bumper, however by no means bought fairly there as Logano captured the checkered flag and his third NASCAR Cup Sequence title. For Penske, they continue to be undefeated within the present period of NASCAR, profitable the final three titles with the Gen-7 automobile.
“I really like the playoffs,” declared Logano. “I adore it, man. What a race! What a Staff Penske battle there on the finish. Had a great restart and was in a position to get in entrance of the 12. And he had loads of long term pace there, and it was all I had there to carry him off.
“Man, three of them, that is actually particular to get that. What a workforce. To combat via at the moment, we went via somewhat little bit of adversity all through the race.”
“I’ve bought the perfect workforce. I do not know if I am the perfect driver, however I’ve bought the perfect workforce, and collectively we’re very well-rounded and may present up when it issues essentially the most. We have a mentally robust workforce that may make issues occur when it issues.”
Joey Logano, Staff Penske, Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang, Martin Truex Jr, Joe Gibbs Racing, Bass Professional Retailers Toyota Camry
Photograph by: NASCAR Media
The margin was 0.330s on the end line with Blaney simply lacking out on back-to-back Cup titles. William Byron completed third whereas Tyler Reddick was the bottom of the title combatants in sixth.
The AMR security workforce was tended to Blaney after the race and he appeared exhaustion after the combat.
“Yeah, simply worn out actually and simply could not fairly get there,” stated Blaney. “And tried actually arduous to take action, simply restart did not actually work out and simply bought too far-off from me and took me some time to go a pair guys and simply might by no means get by Joey. Yeah, ran out of time.
“However congrats to him, congrats to the 22 workforce … They put collectively an excellent playoffs, and we’re comfortable. If we’ll race anyone, I am comfortable it was him for the championship, and comfortable to be one-two for Roger [Penske, owner], three in a row for Roger, tremendous wonderful, and Ford.”
Simply super-fast, simply did not fairly have sufficient there on the finish. Not less than a Penske automobile gained it, however heck of a battle. I hope the followers loved it, and hopefully we come again even stronger subsequent yr.
The ultimate stage
Blaney and Logano every took a stage win at Phoenix, however no stage factors are awarded to the Championship 4 drivers. In the beginning of the ultimate stage, Reddick made a daring four-wide transfer in a determined try to realize some floor. He made it stick on the skin, however contact was made and it practically resulted in tears. Reddick made contact with Chris Buescher and Chase Elliott, who practically crashed however by some means sorted all of it out. The daring transfer vaulted Reddick into the top-five.
What adopted was a prolonged green-flag run with many of the leaders pitting with about 75 laps to go. Byron waited, pitting over ten laps later. Nevertheless, the timing could not have been extra good as Zane Smith crashed, forcing a warning.
Byron inherited the race lead as the remainder of the sector pitted for recent tires, and he had two Hendrick teammates straight behind him. Nevertheless, Christopher Bell made fast work of them after raging in opposition to Chevrolet’s race manipulation at Martinsville earlier this weekend. He bought alongside Byron, battling side-by-side for the lead.
This offered a gap for Logano, who was in a position to go them each with a three-wide transfer throughout the dogleg. Blaney was not as lucky and bought bagged down in site visitors. It took him some time, however lastly fought his means round Larson with 35 laps to go and Byron with 22 laps left.
Clearly the quickest automobile on observe, the 2023 champ quickly closed the hole to Logano, however the No. 22 defended masterfully to maintain him at bay.
The race, whereas slightly tame, was additionally briefly halted by a weird incident between the primary two phases when the tempo automobile crashed into the sand barrels on the entrance of pit highway.
