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