Logano Wins Can-Am 500 at PIR to Punch a Ticket to Race for a Championship

Credit - Ralph Freso/AP

AVONDALE, AZ – RIS – Joey Logano had a great restart in the second helping of overtime and went on to win Sunday’s Can-Am 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Race at Phoenix International Raceway, punching his ticket to the final four drivers to race for the championship.  The first overtime had Matt Kenseth leading with Alex Bowman, driving for the No. 88 team usually driven by Dale Earnhardt, Jr., in second, and Logano in third place.  What happened next changed the complexion of the championship race.

Kenseth took the outside starting position, leaving Bowman the inside.  The start of the race saw Kenseth gain an advantage over Logano on the outside and Bowman and Kyle Busch on the inside.  Busch was on the bumper of Bowman.  They touched.  Kenseth heard his spotter say, “clear,” which he was at that split-second.  Unfortunately for Kenseth, Bowman had dropped even lower on the track, and with a push from Busch was gaining speed.  Bowman got loose and Kenseth came down low.  Bowman hit him in the left side, pushing him into the outside safer barrier.  It ended Kenseth’s quest for the championship.

Logano and the No. 22 Team Penske Ford were often the dominant combination of the 2015 season, and he was bitterly disappointed that after Kenseth wrecked him at Martinsville, he didn't get the opportunity to compete for the crown.

But thanks to the incredible events that went down late in Sunday's race at Phoenix, he'll get that chance next week for the second time in the three years that NASCAR's Chase has been run using the current 16-driver elimination format.

Team owner Roger Penske called it “karma.”  It was last year that a points-leading Logano was deliberately wrecked by Kenseth, still mad after Logano had moved him into the wall at Kansas.  This time, it was Kenseth who got wrecked, thus laying the groundwork for Logano’s third win of the season.

It was Logano's 17th career Cup Series race win, and his seventh in the Chase since the elimination format was introduced in 2014. That tops all drivers, and he's still just 26 years old.

"Man, this feels so good!" Logano exclaimed in his Victory Lane television interview. "I've never felt this good about a win before. I feel like I won the Daytona 500 again. There's so much on the line, and everybody brings their A-game when it comes to winning championships.

"We're racing for a championship now," he added. "We did exactly what we had to do. We're going to go to Homestead and do the same thing."

Penske was elated.

"I guess we can say we're going to Homestead," Penske remarked. "Today the team was disciplined, they executed the pit stops and Joey's restarts were classic Logano -- nobody was able to be as cool as he was to take the position.

"The outcome wasn't the outcome until the overtime," Penske added. "I think this proves just how good he is to continually get the job done for us."

Logano is convinced that he and his team led by crew chief Todd Gordon have what it takes to prevail in the final four shootout next week at Homestead. His competition includes Busch, fellow Joe Gibbs Racing driver Carl Edwards and six-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson.

In his other championship final experience in 2014, Logano finished 16th at Homestead, last among the four Chase contenders. He vows that will not happen again.

"We have experience now," Logano stated. "We've been together four years or so, and we've gone through some hard situations together as a team and not much has changed. They do a good job of keeping their head straight and a lot of that comes from Todd. We're peaking at the right time, which is a good sign," Logano continued. "We've had some speed the last three races. Texas was one of our best races of the year and to go to a racetrack that's very similar to that makes me excited. We know what it takes to win a championship because we've been through that situation once before. I've been saying throughout this Chase that I hope we're in that situation because we know how to handle it. Today we were in that situation and we won the race, and I can't wait to put my team in that situation again."

The final standings going into the final race finds Logano at the top, six-time champ Jimmie Johnson in second, Carl Edwards in third, and 2015 champion Busch in the fourth and final position.  The points will be reset for the final race.

Kenseth was upset.  The Joe Gibbs Racing team of Carl Edwards, Kenseth, Busch, and Denny Hamlin had dominated the season, winning half the races.  The team had hope of putting all four  cars in the championship, but they will have to be contend with two.

"Disappointing would be the way to put it lightly," Kenseth said. "Finish that race five minutes before that, looked like we had a chance to go race for a championship. It was a big swing in 10 or 15 minutes."

Hamlin finished seventh after a bizarre decision not to pit with the rest of the field for track position. Although it gave him a brief lead, he was no match for drivers with fresh tires.

"I knew it was going to be an uphill climb," Hamlin said.

The final finishing agate is posted below.

Leader
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts Bns Driver Rating Status Tms Laps
1 4 22 Joey Logano (C) Shell Pennzoil Ford 324 44 4 125.6 Running 3 58
2 19 18 Kyle Busch (C) M&M's Toyota 324 39 99.3 Running
3 2 42 Kyle Larson Target Chevrolet 324 38 92.2 Running
4 6 4 Kevin Harvick (C) Jimmy John's Chevrolet 324 37 97.9 Running
5 12 41 Kurt Busch (C) Monster Energy/Haas Automation Chevrolet 324 36 90.2 Running
6 1 88 Alex Bowman(i) Nationwide Chevrolet 324 0 138.0 Running 3 194
7 5 11 Denny Hamlin (C) FedEx Ground Toyota 324 35 1 104.8 Running 1 4
8 8 21 * Ryan Blaney # SKF Ford 324 33 85.2 Running
9 3 24 Chase Elliott # SunEnergy1 Chevrolet 324 32 106.7 Running
10 20 27 Paul Menard Rust-oleum/Menards Chevrolet 324 31 73.4 Running
11 9 1 Jamie McMurray Sherwin Williams Chevrolet 324 30 87.2 Running
12 15 31 Ryan Newman Cat Minestar Chevrolet 324 29 78.3 Running
13 13 5 Kasey Kahne Farmers Insurance Chevrolet 324 28 98.8 Running
14 14 2 Brad Keselowski Miller Lite Ford 324 27 97.2 Running
15 25 14 Tony Stewart Mobil 1 Chevrolet 324 26 68.5 Running
16 24 16 Greg Biffle Performance Plus Ford 324 25 71.3 Running
17 18 47 AJ Allmendinger Fry's/Clorox Chevrolet 324 24 69.6 Running
18 22 13 Casey Mears GEICO Military Chevrolet 324 23 62.5 Running
19 11 19 Carl Edwards (C) Stanley Toyota 324 22 76.0 Running
20 28 38 Landon Cassill MDS Transport Ford 324 21 54.2 Running
21 10 20 Matt Kenseth (C) Dollar General Toyota 324 21 1 108.2 Running 1 55
22 27 43 Aric Almirola USAF Ford 322 19 46.8 Running
23 21 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Performance Ford 322 18 59.4 Running
24 34 15 Clint Bowyer 5-hour Energy Chevrolet 322 17 50.0 Running
25 32 83 Matt DiBenedetto JAS Expedited Tracking Toyota 322 16 51.0 Running
26 36 46 Michael Annett Pilot Flying J Chevrolet 321 15 46.3 Running
27 29 7 Regan Smith Nikko RC/Toy State Chevrolet 321 14 44.7 Running
28 23 6 Trevor Bayne AdvoCare Ford 321 13 46.2 Running
29 16 10 Danica Patrick Nature's Bakery Chevrolet 320 12 48.9 Running
30 33 44 Brian Scott # Safeway Ford 319 11 38.0 Running
31 31 23 David Ragan Dr Pepper Toyota 319 10 34.8 Running
32 30 34 Chris Buescher # Dockside Logistics Ford 318 9 37.2 Running
33 35 32 Jeffrey Earnhardt # Can-Am/Kappa Ford 318 8 31.6 Running
34 26 95 Michael McDowell ON Semiconductors/Malwarebytes Chevrolet 318 7 48.2 Running
35 39 55 * DJ Kennington(i) Northern Provincial Pipelines Chevrolet 316 0 28.8 Running
36 38 98 * Reed Sorenson Speed Stick Chevrolet 315 5 26.8 Running
37 37 30 * Gray Gaulding Feed the Children Chevrolet 296 4 24.7 Fuel Pump
38 17 48 Jimmie Johnson (C) Kobalt Chevrolet 296 4 1 93.6 Running 1 13
39 7 3 Austin Dillon American Ethanol Chevrolet 289 2 65.9 Running
40 40 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota 258 1 66.8 Accident  

Ron Fleshman

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2016, Issue 8, Posted 10:49 PM, 11.13.2016