Joey Logano wins at Vegas, clinches Championship 4 spot (10-16-22)
By: Becca Cottingham Quimby
Headline Photo Credit: NASCAR Twitter Page
We head to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Tyler Reddick will bring us to green and he and Austin Cindric will battle. Tires are already a concern on the pit road before the race started. Ryan Blaney is already complaining about the issue of some vibration or chattering happening. Most drivers will probably try to split this stage for green flag pit stops if there is no caution. With the possible issues with tires, this stop will be important. As this is a high tire wear track. If they are green flag stops drivers will have to be super careful to not have penalties. We see drivers come just a little earlier to get slightly off-sync with other drivers to try to get those fresh tires. This will make the finishing laps very interesting. Bubba Wallace will get up front and battle with Daniel Suarez. Bubba will win that battle until Kyle Busch spins out and brings the caution out. This will lead to Bubba Wallace winning stage one under caution.
We get back to green and two teammates work together to lead the race. It keeps drivers behind them until Kyle Larson decides to go three wide to clear two cars at once. He was able to clear one because Kevin Harvick backed out but he moved upward on Bubba Wallace. This resulted in them making contact and taking each other out. Then they collect Christopher Bell and give him suspension damage. We get back to the green flag and caution is thrown because Ricky Stenhouse Jr spins out but multiple drivers made contacts. We get back to racing and it was looking like a Trackhouse racing stage two. There is a change though as drivers push as Ryan Blaney worked his way to the front of the pack. Ryan Blaney will keep the lead to win stage two.
We get back to racing for the third and final stage. The restarts have been aggressive. This restart was no less aggressive and showed how every position is necessary. Teammates once again worked together but this time it was Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney. We will get a caution with just over seventy laps to go due to a flat on J.J. Yeley. This will bring us to another aggressive restart along with probably some additional angry drivers. Ryan Blaney has a tire go down and they hit the wall. While Ryan Blaney was having work done on his car. Kyle Busch had a left front tire come off while on track. We get back to racing until Landon Cassill had a tire go down. They had something break or go through the grill that seemed to have caused problems. This will lead to another final aggressive restart for the race. Chase Briscoe will be our leader until Ross Chastain took over the lead. This will eventually lead to a huge battle between Ross Chastain and Joey Logano. As this can be the difference for a playoff spot in the final four. Ross Chastain will block Joey Logano as best as he can until there is a lapped car. This sends the drivers in two different directions. Allowing Joey Logano to advance. Joey Logano will hold the lead and get the unofficial win
