REST IN PEACE: The greatest legend in Dirt Track Racing EARL BALTES Death so Painful to my heart Fans say a word to his soul

By AMANDA VINCENT

After near-elimination from the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs a week earlier at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval, only advancing after Alex Bowman’s car failed post-race inspection, Joey Logano cemented a spot in the championship four by winning the South Point 400, the first race of the round of eight, Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was his third win of the season and his second, so far, of the playoffs.

“Oh my gosh. It’s an incredible turn of events coming from what was at the end of last weekend and what it was like Sunday night after a couple hours after the race and to this Sunday,” Logano said. “This sport is just incredible. Things change, but what a team I’ve got. I stood out there at the start-finish line, and it takes a total effort. Obviously, the car had to be pretty good. It was solid, but when you think about what it takes to win a fuel-mileage race, you’ve got to have a good engine. You’ve got to have good engineers calculating stuff. You’ve got to have good communication communicating what they see and being able to make sure that I only gave up the right amount of spots on the race track and trying to get to the 99 (Daniel Suarez) in front and keep the 20 (Christopher Bell) behind. Coleman (Pressley, spotter), Paul (Wolfe, crew chief), Joe, Nick Hensley, our gas man, making sure it’s full. It takes everybody to do it, so we’re in the championship four, again. I’m so proud of this team. We just find a way, and that’s what I’m most proud of. I said it as we entered this thing this week that we may be the underdogs, but I don’t think so anymore.”

Also worth noting — the other two times Logano won the first race of the round of eight, he won Cup Series championships (2018 and 2022).

Christopher Bell finished second, Daniel Suarez was third, and Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Alex Bowman rounded out the top-five.

Bell dominated the 267-lap race, leading a race-high 155 laps. He gave up the lead to pit during a cycle of green-flag pit stops on lap 229.

After pitting during the fifth and final caution of the race for a Ty Gibbs spin on lap 194, Logano and Suarez went into fuel-conservation mode and didn’t return to pit road.

Logano took the lead from Suarez on lap 261.

Tyler Reddick won stage one at lap 80 after taking the lead from Martin Truex Jr. on lap 74.  Toyotas were in the top-three positions at stage-end with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Bell and Truex in second and third.

Pole sitter Bell led most of the stage, first giving up the lead during a cycle of green-flag pit stops on lap 35. He cycled back to the lead on lap 39.

Truex got off pit road first with a two-tire stop during the first caution of the race on lap 64 when Austin Dillon crashed hard into the wall because of contact from Daniel Hemric. Reddick was sixth out of the pits as the first driver with four new tires.

“He (Hemric) flat-out wrecked me, no clue why,” Dillon said. “He’s got three races left, and I don’t know if he was just over his head. He stays in the gas into (turn) three until he hits me. I don’t know what that was.”

Erik Jones lost a wheel during the Dillon caution.

Soon after his stage win, Reddick was out of the race. In a lap-90 crash that also involved Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Austin Cindric, Reddick flipped but was able to drive to pit road and, then, to the garage.

“Yeah, you just have to be aggressive on restarts,” Reddick said. “It’s how the Next-Gen racing has been from the beginning. I kind of saw them both have a moment, and I just had to split-second make a decision. You have to be aggressive on the restart. It is hard to pass after awhile. Being myself on a mile-and-a-half, being aggressive, by the time I realized I was in trouble, the 19 (Truex) started sliding and the 9 (Elliott) was coming up , and I was pretty much already on their outside at that point with nowhere to really go. I needed to make the decision earlier when I saw them sliding to be more conservative to avoid an incident; just not who I am, but it is unfortunate. It took us out of the race. We had a really, really fast Jordan Brand Toyota Camry, probably would have been in the mix all race long, but we will go to Homestead, a place where I have had to get it done before and go for it there.”

Ryan Blaney spun and hit the wall during the caution and, as a result, broke a right-rear toe link.

After beating the damaged-vehicle clock, Elliott headed to the garage for additional repairs.

JGR teammates Denny Hamlin and Gibbs were up front to restart for stage two — Hamlin after staying out after stage one and Gibbs after taking only two tires following the opening stage. Gibbs took the lead on the lap-88 restart.

Bell retook the lead from his teammate on lap 111.

Gibbs drivers were one-two after the 85-lap second stage. Bell took the stage-two win, and Truex was second.

Bell gave up the lead to pit during a second green-flag cycle of stops on lap 124. Suarez stayed out during the cycle to lead laps, but Bell and Truex passed him to take the top-two positions on lap 150.

Suarez fell back to eighth by stage-end.

Kyle Larson made an extra pit stop for a loose wheel during the cycle of stops. After stage two, Hamlin suffered a similar fate — an extra pit stop because of a loose wheel.

Truex finished Sunday’s race in the sixth position. Ross Chastain finished seventh, Hamlin eighth, John Hunter Nemechek ninth, and Chris Buescher was 10th.