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Joey Logano has won the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Championship in standout fashion, pulling away at Phoenix Raceway and leading 188 of the race’s 312 laps.
This is the second NASCAR Cup Series win for Logano as the Team Penske driver joins the coveted group of active multi-time champions on the grid, including his former team-mate, Kyle Busch. He’ll place this year’s trophy next to his 2018 title.
“We did it! We’re champions again,” he said.
“I’m so excited! Thank you to everybody, my team.
“You guys are amazing. Gave me a good race car, good pit stop there at the end, got us up in front.”
“Boy, that was just intense there at the end. It’s all about the championships,” added Logano.
“That’s what it’s all about, and we worked so hard the last couple of weekends trying to put ourselves in position.”
Ross Chastain, who made headlines last week following his now famous ‘wall ride’ at Martinsville Speedway, narrowly missed out on the championship win, moving up 22 spots in the race but finishing in third after trailing Logano’s Team Penske team-mate, Ryan Blaney, for the last 30 laps.
“I had a car fast enough to chase him down at the end,” said Chastain.
“I think we did everything we could. That was one heck of a drive.”
Christopher Bell came home in 10th position and Chase Elliott had a weekend to forget, spinning off Chastain’s bumper and into the inside wall on the restart with 113 laps to go.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver finished in 28th and was two laps down from the other title contenders.
The day begun in sombre fashion; Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) announced the death of co-owner Coy Gibbs, the father of Xfinity Series winner Ty Gibbs, who was meant to drive the #23 car but dropped out of Sunday’s race to grieve.
Logano started the race from pole position and led in dominant fashion to the first Stage victory.
Bell managed a save in Stage 2 to keep his championship hopes alive, avoiding contact in pitlane after his car barrelled towards the wall.
The #20 had a disastrous stop under the Caution on Lap 271 that ended up lasting 19.8s.
Bell restarted from 16th and came home to finish in 10th position. The JGR driver had been told before the race about Coy Gibbs’ passing and sent his regards to the team and everyone in motorsports impacted.
“All of a sudden you wake up this morning and you are racing for a championship, and you are happy, you are elated, and then your world comes crashing down,” said Bell.
“Whenever you get news like that, it puts it in perspective that there is more to this than racing. The whole Gibbs family is in all of our prayers.
“I’m thinking of them.”
Blaney gave his team-mate the toughest competition of the day, winning Stage 2 and leading 109 laps of the race before finishing only 0.301s behind in second.
Chastain, Chase Briscoe and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top five for the last NASCAR race of the year in Phoenix.
The 2023 Cup Series season will begin on February 19 with the Daytona 500.
