Capitalizing on his experience as he vowed he would, Joey Logano made a veteran move to win the season finale at Phoenix Raceway and clinch his third NASCAR Cup Series championship.
Logano seized the lead for the final time after gaining four spots in two laps on a restart with 52 laps remaining. After going from fifth to third, he zoomed past teammate Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell to take first.
He fended off a furious charge by Blaney in the closing laps and won by 0.330 seconds in a 1-2 finish for Team Penske.
“I love the playoffs,” Logano told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “I love it, man. What a race. What a Team Penske battle at the end. Had a good restart, was able to get in front of (Blaney), and he had a lot of long-run speed and was able to hold him off.”
Logano, 34, became the 10th driver with at least three championships in Cup Series history, joining Lee Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarbrough, Darrell Waltrip and Tony Stewart with three titles. Only seven-time champions Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty, plus four-time champion Jeff Gordon, have more titles.
Winning the championship for the second time in three years by winning at Phoenix, Logno earned his fourth victory this season and 36th of his career. In 11 seasons since NASCAR introduced the elimination playoffs, the Middletown, Connecticut, native is the only-three champ (having won titles in 2018, ’22 and ’24).
After winning the first stage, Logano fell to fifth after a slow pit stop under yellow but stayed in the hunt. He credited spotter Coleman Pressley with feeding him information on Blaney’s position to help stay in the lead. Logano led 107 laps, including the final 53, in his No. 22 Ford.
“To fight through today, we went through a little bit of adversity throughout the race,” Logano said. “Paul Wolfe, what a crew chief do I have? I’ve got the best team. I don’t know if I’m the best driver, but I’ve got the best team, and together we’re very well-rounded and can show up when it matters the most. We’ve got a mentally tough team that can make things happen when it matters.”
Team owner Roger Penske’s organization scored its third consecutive Cup championship, having won all three titles since NASCAR introduced its Next Gen car in 2022. It’s the fifth Cup title for Penske — all since 2012 when Brad Keselowski delivered the first.
Blaney finished second and came up one spot short in his bid to become the first repeat champion in 14 years since Johnson.
The No. 12 Ford driver closed within a few car lengths in the final 10 laps but was unable to pressure his teammate into a mistake.
“Worn out, just couldn’t quite get there,” an exhausted Blaney told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns. “Tried really hard to do so. The restart didn’t really work out. He got too far away from me. Took a while to pass a couple of guys and just couldn’t get by Joey but congrats to him and the rest of the 22 team. They put together a great playoffs.
“If I’m going to race somebody, I’m happy it’s him for the championship. And a 1-2 for Roger, three in a row for Roger is amazing for him and Ford. Super fast, just didn’t have enough at the end. Heck of a battle.”
Byron took third as Championship 4 contenders swept the top three spots.
“We just needed a little bit more,” Byron told NBC Sports’ Kim Coon. “I felt we gave it all we had; that’s something to be proud of. We just didn’t have enough to go fight with the Penske guys. (Crew chief) Rudy (Fugle) made a great call to give us a shot at the front row, just not quite enough.
Tyler Reddick finished sixth in his first Championship 4 appearance and the title race debut of 23XI Racing.
“We definitely got better throughout the day,” Reddick told NBC Sports’ Parker Kligerman. “They just pulled away over time. Good year for us. To have a shot was nice. We have to get a little better at Phoenix. Good year for us, proud of the effort. Close, not quite good enough.”
Kyle Larson was fourth, and Christopher Bell, who was excluded from the Championship 4 on a controversial call a week earlier, took fifth. The Joe Gibbs Racing star earned a measure of vindication by leading a race-high 143 of 312 laps and often outperforming the title contenders.
The race had only two cautions for incidents, the last for Zane Smith on Lap 250, a lap after Byron pitted from the lead as the last of the Championship 4 contenders to stop under green. Byron inherited the lead in his No. 24 Chevrolet on Lap 254 as the other six cars on the lead lap pitted, but the Hendrick Motorsports driver was unable to hold the lead when the race returned green
The yellow flew on the second lap for a heavy impact by Ty Gibbs, whose No. 54 Toyota slammed into the outside wall off Turn 1. Gibbs had rubbed the wall in Turn 4 on the previous lap.
“Definitely a big hit, I made contact with the wall, and I didn’t think it was too bad, so I went off (down the straightaway),” Gibbs told NBC Sports’ Kim Coon. “I think I just caught it at a bad angle, and it just took off on me. I had no control there. It was a really, really big hit, though.”
Stage 1 winner: Logano
Stage 2 winner: Blaney
Next: The preseason Clash exhibition race will be held Feb. 2 at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for the first time, followed by the Daytona 500 season opener Feb. 16. Both races are on Fox.