Logano holds off Blaney and becomes a three-time NASCAR Cup champion

Joey Logano faded late and Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney came up quickly in a dramatic showdown in Phoenix. Blaney fought past Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kyle Larson and William Byron before pulling ahead by 2.3 seconds over Logano.

He almost reached his rear bumper but never quite made it as Logano took the checkered flag and his third NASCAR Cup Series title. For Penske, they remain undefeated in the current NASCAR era and have won the last three titles with the Gen 7 car.

“I love the playoffs,” Logano said. “I love it, man. What a race! What a Team Penske fight there at the end. Had a good restart and was able to get to the 12th place. And he had a lot of long-range speed there, and that was it. “All I had was to stop him.

“Man, three of them, that’s really special. What a team. To fight through today, we went through some adversity throughout the race.”

“I have the best team. I don’t know if I’m the best driver, but I have the best team and together we are very well placed and can show up when it matters most.” We have a mentally strong team that can make things happen can when it matters.”

The lead was 0.330 seconds at the finish, with Blaney narrowly missing out on his second Cup title in a row. William Byron was third, while Tyler Reddick was the worst of the title contenders in sixth.

The AMR security team looked after Blaney after the race and he appeared exhausted after the fight.

“Yeah, I’m really exhausted and I just couldn’t quite get it done,” Blaney said. “And I really tried to do it but the restart didn’t really work and it was just too far away from me and it took me a while to pass a few guys and I just never got past Joey. Yes, I ran out of time.”

“But congrats to him, congrats to the 22 team… They put together a great playoff and we’re happy. If we’re up against someone, I’m glad it was him for the championship and that too.” Double victory for Roger [Penske, owner]three in a row for Roger, super great and Ford.

“Just super fast, in the end I just didn’t have quite enough. At least one Penske car won, but it was an uphill battle. I hope the fans enjoyed it and hopefully we can come back even stronger next year.”

William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports, Joey Logano, Team Penske, Ryan Blaney, Team Penske, Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing

Photo by: NASCAR Media

The final stage

Blaney and Logano each took a stage win in Phoenix, but no stage points will be awarded to the 4th Championship riders. Early in the closing stages, Reddick made a bold four-way push in a desperate attempt to gain some ground. He left it taped to the outside, but it made contact and almost ended in tears. Reddick made contact with Chris Buescher and Chase Elliott, who almost went down but somehow made everything okay. The bold move landed Reddick in the top five.

What followed was a long green flag run with most of the leaders pitting with about 75 laps to go. Byron waited and came into the pits over ten laps later. However, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect as Zane Smith fell, forcing a caution.

Byron took the lead in the race while the rest of the field pitted for new tires, and he had two Hendrick teammates right behind him. However, Christopher Bell made quick work after speaking out against Chevrolet’s race-fixing at Martinsville earlier this weekend. He joined Byron and fought side by side for the lead.

This presented an opportunity for Logano, who was able to pass both of them with a three-point shot over the dogleg. Blaney wasn’t so lucky and ran into traffic. It took a while before he finally fought his way past Larson with 35 laps to go and Byron with 22 laps to go.

The 2023 champion was clearly the fastest car on track and quickly closed the gap on Logano, but the number 22 defended masterfully to keep him at bay.

Although the race was rather subdued, it was briefly interrupted by a bizarre incident between the first two stages when the pace car crashed into the sand barrels at the entrance to pit road.