HOMESTEAD, Fla. _ As Joey Logano slowly heaped second by second onto his lead, stretching his margin out front over the last 10 laps of the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the inevitable finally began to dawn:
Logano would finally, at long last, after close defeats and missing the playoffs entirely the season before, win his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.
When a late caution with less than 20 laps to go forced a restart, it was Truex and Logano slinging back and forth for the lead. And while Truex narrowly held it for a few of those swings, he could never quite get away.
That narrow window was the only hope Logano needed. After side-drafting with Truex, yo-yoing for the lead in what would certainly define this season, Logano managed to pass him with about 10 laps to go.
After pushing Truex at Martinsville three weeks ago to even get to this point, Logano didn't need any extracurriculars to get it done Sunday. His lead slowly grew and grew, and by the time he finally crossed the finish line in first?
Well, at that point the inevitability of it all struck Logano, too. And the tears had already started to fall.
