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Autosport
Autosport
Sport
Jim Utter

NASCAR Cup Las Vegas: Logano wins to advance to title race, Wallace and Larson clash

Chastain took the field three-wide on a restart with 16 laps to go to move into the lead but Logano – among a group of cars that pitted for new tyres during the previous caution period – was coming up fast through the field.

Logano finally caught Chastain with two laps to go and easily made his way around him to reclaim the lead and held on by 0.817 seconds for the victory.

Logano’s victory sees him automatically advance to the championship 4 at Phoenix and will compete for the 2022 series title regardless of how he finishes in the next two races – next weekend at Homestead and then at Martinsville.

The win could prove a good omen for Logano because the driver who has won the first race of the semi-final round of the playoffs has gone on to win the championship in three of the last four seasons.

Earlier in the race a flashpoint erupted between Wallace and Larson when the pair tangled and the incident spilled over into the infield.

On lap 95 Larson slid up into Wallace and knocked him into the outside wall. As Wallace came back down the track, he slammed into the right-rear of Larson’s Chevrolet, sending both cars spinning, with the crash also took out playoff contender Christopher Bell.

After exiting his car, Wallace walked over to Larson’s wrecked car and started shoving Larson.

“We had a super-fast car – not on short run speed, we were kind of falling back there and Larson wanted to make it a three-wide dive bomb,” Wallace said. “He never cleared me. I don’t lift. I know I’m kind of new to running up front, but I don’t lift.

“I wasn’t even in a spot to lift, he never lifted either and now we are junk. Piss poor move on his execution.”

Bell was arguably the biggest loser in the clash as he is now in danger of elimination from the playoffs with two races of the semi-finals to go, as defending NASCAR Cup champion Larson was already eliminated from the playoffs in the previous round.

Kyle Busch finished third as Chase Briscoe rebounded from dropping a lap down to finish fourth ahead of Denny Hamlin who rounded out the top five.

With two races remaining in the latest round of the playoffs, the four drivers lowest in points and under threat of elimination are Bell, Briscoe, William Byron and Ryan Blaney – Blaney was also caught up in a crash during the Las Vegas race.

NASCAR Cup Las Vegas - Race Results

Cla Driver Manufacturer Laps Gap Interval Retirement
1 United States Joey Logano Ford 267      
2 United States Ross Chastain Chevrolet 267 0.817 0.817  
3 United States Kyle Busch Toyota 267 1.033 0.216  
4 United States Chase Briscoe Ford 267 2.062 1.029  
5 United States Denny Hamlin Toyota 267 3.432 1.370  
6 United States Tyler Reddick Chevrolet 267 3.775 0.343  
7 United States Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 267 4.547 0.772  
8 United States Erik Jones Chevrolet 267 5.032 0.485  
9 United States A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 267 5.101 0.069  
10 United States Austin Dillon Chevrolet 267 5.723 0.622  
11 United States Noah Gragson Chevrolet 267 6.140 0.417  
12 United States Kevin Harvick Ford 267 6.427 0.287  
13 United States William Byron Chevrolet 267 7.077 0.650  
14 United States Justin Haley Chevrolet 267 7.157 0.080  
15 United States Chris Buescher Ford 267 7.975 0.818  
16 Mexico Daniel Suarez Chevrolet 267 8.376 0.401  
17 United States Brad Keselowski Ford 267 8.539 0.163  
18 United States Aric Almirola Ford 267 8.688 0.149  
19 United States Michael McDowell Ford 267 8.957 0.269  
20 United States Cole Custer Ford 267 9.824 0.867  
21 United States Chase Elliott Chevrolet 267 9.861 0.037  
22 Ty Gibbs Toyota 267 9.870 0.009  
23 United States Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Chevrolet 267 11.148 1.278  
24 United States Corey Lajoie Chevrolet 267 12.003 0.855  
25 United States Todd Gilliland Ford 267 12.382 0.379  
26 United States Harrison Burton Ford 266 1 Lap 1 Lap  
27 United States Cody Ware Ford 264 3 Laps 2 Laps  
28 United States Ryan Blaney Ford 260 7 Laps 4 Laps  
29 United States Austin Cindric Ford 259 8 Laps 1 Lap  
30 United States B.J. McLeod Ford 256 11 Laps 3 Laps  
31 United States J.J. Yeley Ford 253 14 Laps 3 Laps  
32 United States Landon Cassill Chevrolet 246 21 Laps 7 Laps Accident
33 United States Ty Dillon Chevrolet 237 30 Laps 9 Laps Suspension
34 United States Christopher Bell Toyota 94 173 Laps 143 Laps DVP
35 United States Kyle Larson Chevrolet 94 173 Laps 0.571 Accident
36 United States Bubba Wallace Toyota 94 173 Laps 0.253 Accident
 

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