Bell furious as Logano flips script in NASCAR playoffs picture

It began almost immediately after the Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Hendrick Motorsports star Alex Bowman was disqualified for failing to make the minimum weight.

The team elected not to appeal the disqualification, which moved him out of the top eight in the playoffs and promoted Logano.

The #22 pilot still sat in a precarious position. Coming into the second race of the Round of 8 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Logano sat last of the contenders.

What followed was a walk-off win.

Incredibly, Logano only led six laps in a race that was otherwise dominated by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell. He led 156 laps in the 267-lap contest.

Bell was among those to pit late for fuel and tyres – 35 laps later than Logano – while the Team Penske star and a handful more elected to save fuel to the finish.

Bell came out more than 30 seconds behind Logano and set about bringing the deficit down at close to one second per lap.

Lapped traffic didn’t help his cause and at the chequered flag, Bell came up 0.662s short.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Bell yelled over his radio.

JOEY LOGANO WILL RACE FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP IN PHOENIX! #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/veXRAd2Wel

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) October 20, 2024

Bell, a playoff contender, would have locked himself into the final four with a win.

The Toyota pilot is still 42 playoff points to go the good with two races remaining in the Round of 8 at Homestead-Miami and Martinsville.

“I don’t know, and I don’t think I have come to terms yet,” said Bell.

“Just a bummer. I think everyone on this team did everything perfect today.

“This thing was obviously on rails, pit crew did an amazing job and [pit crew] Adam [Stevens] called a great race. Did everything we needed to, but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be today.

“The points look pretty good, but you’re never safe in this deal. We needed to win today and unfortunately, we didn’t. We’ll go on to the next one.”

It was all smiles for Logano.

“Man, we did some fuel-mileage stuff, didn’t we? Holy crap,” said Logano.

“What an incredible turn of events here the last week. Very fast Pennzoil Mustang. We’re going to the Championship 4 again. It’s real.

“Great fuel mileage, great calls by [crew chief] Paul [Wolfe], Nick Hensley, our gas man, making sure she’s full, giving me the info to keep the lead that we needed to.

“We’re going racing again. What an incredible situation, man. I’m so blessed.

“Just an incredible day. Like I said, it takes the whole team to do the fuel mileage stuff. Not just the engineers, spotter. It takes all of us to do it. Total team win.

“We may not have been the fastest car today, but we were a solid top-five car and were able to maximize it at the end.”

TYLER REDDICK FLIPS!

Reddick and Chase Elliott both crash. Reddick was able to drive his car to pit road but is done for the day. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/kBjgRp4TC0

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) October 20, 2024

Logano’s win puts Kyle Larson and William Byron in a precarious position in third and fourth respectively.

Denny Hamlin is the first driver below the cutoff line at -27 points ahead of Tyler Reddick (-30), Ryan Blaney (-30), and Chase Elliott (-53).

Elliott is almost in a must-win position after a wretched run continued at Las Vegas. He was caught up in a chaotic crash with Tyler Reddick that resulted in the 23XI Racing drivers rolling.

The NASCAR Cup Series continues on October 2.

Results: NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400, Las Vegas Motor Speedway