Start: 5th
Finish: 1st
Laps Led: 32

Stage 1 Finish: 2nd
Stage 2 Finish: 2nd
Point Standings: 1st (+21)

Joey Logano and the No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang captured the victory on Sunday afternoon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, locking the former Cup Series Champion in the Championship 4 at Phoenix International Raceway. Logano started fifth and quickly made his presence at the front of the field known, battling for the race lead near the end of Stage 1 despite dealing with a vibration late in the run. A caution before the end of the first stage saw Logano finish the initial stage in the second position, picking up nine valuable stage points. Logano would fight a loose condition throughout the second stage, but remain a fixture in the top-five, once again finishing second in the stage, collecting a total of 18 stage points during the afternoon. As the final stage began, Logano found himself leading the race for the first time. He would lead until a caution brought a round of pit stops. Logano would continue to run up in the top-five until a caution following a crash by teammate Ryan Blaney brought the field to pit road with less than 40 laps to go. The Pennzoil team experienced issues on the stop, dropping Logano back to 10th for the late-race restart. A great call by crew chief Paul Wolfe would bring Logano to pit road for four fresh tires. Logano would then drive through the field on multiple restarts to take the lead with just three laps to go enroute to taking the checkered flag, his 30th-career NASCAR Cup Series win. The win locked Logano into the Championship 4 in three weeks at Phoenix.

“We’re racing for a championship! Let’s go! Man, what a great car. Penske cars were all fast. All of them were really fast today. Oh, man, all you want to do is get to the Championship 4 when the season starts and race for a championship, and we’ve got the team to do it. I don’t see why we can’t win at this point. Things are looking really good for us, awesome Pennzoil Mustang, this bad boy, and man, just a lot of adversity fought through the last 50 laps or so. I thought we were going to win and then we kind of fell out and then had the tires, and racing Ross was fun. He was doing a good job air-blocking me, and just trying to be patient, and eventually, I was like, I’ve got to go here. Just great to win out here in Vegas again, and it means so much getting to the championship.”