Logano punches ticket to NASCAR’s Championship 4 in Kansas, wins Hollywood Casino 400

So much for a slumping Joey Logano.

Logano, who had not won a NASCAR Cup race since March 8 at Phoenix, bounced back from months of mediocrity and won the Hollywood Casino 400 at frigid Kansas Speedway on Sunday.

The victory in the opener of the Round of 8 in NASCAR’s playoffs, guaranteed Logano a spot in the Championship 4 race at Phoenix on Nov 8. Logano, in a pulsating duel with Kevin Harvick, piloted his No. 22 Team Penske to his third win of the season and a record-tying third at Kansas Speedway.

And it followed three straight finishes outside the top 10 before a second-place finish at the Charlotte Roval last week.

Logano, who won at Kansas Speedway in 2014 and 2015, had won two of the first four races of 2020 before the season shut down for two months because of the pandemic. He joined Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Harvick and defending race winner Denny Hamlin as three-time winners at Kansas.

Harvick, in the No. 4 Ford, was second, followed by Alex Bowman in the No. 88 Chevrolet and Logano’s teammate, Brad Keselowski, in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford..

”You’ve got to want it, man, “ said Logano, 30, who took the lead from Harvick with 40 laps to go. “Pit stops put us in position and got us in the lead. The 4’s fast, he was real fast, especially on the straightaways. I felt if I could hold him off the first 15 laps, I had a chance.

“I’m exhausted … we’re going to Phoenix, racing for a championship again,” said Logano, the 2018 Cup champion. “It’s on your mind every lap. You come into this race knowing if you can win this thing, you have an amazing advantage. The same thing happened to us in 2018 when we raced for a win at Martinsville, knowing we have nothing to two races just to battle for nothing but the championship”

The other seven other playoff drivers have two more chances — next week at Texas and on Nov. 1 at Martinsville — to lock in a berth in the final race. The fourth spot will be determined by points.

Harvick, the 2014 champion and nine-time winner this year, remains at the top of the points standings, 41 ahead of the line to transfer, followed by Hamlin, 20 points ahead, and Keselowski, who is 8 points in front of Chase Elliott for the final spot.

Harvick, who had struggled to 11th-, 20th- and 10th-place finishes in his previous three races since winning at Bristol, tried his best to pass Logano, going high and low on the track without success.

“We just needed to get off of pit road first,” Harvick said. “It came down to controlling that restart and we lost the lead there and wound up trying to battle We had a fast car, we moved all over the race track and we weren’t the best behind somebody.

“It was a good run for us. … Joey’s a good blocker.”

The race, in front of a socially distanced crowd limited to 10,000 hearty fans, began in chilly 45-degree temperatures with wind chills in the 30s, making it the coldest Kansas race in five years and coldest NASCAR Cup race since March 2015 at Martinsville where it was 42 degrees.

It was a stark contrast to the last Cup race at Kansas Speedway last July, when temperatures were near 90 degrees and no fans were in attendance due to the pandemic.

While the cool temperatures may have affected tires and handling of the cars, Martin Truex Jr., said they had little effect on the drivers’ performance.

“The biggest thing is when it’s cold out, the driver is nice and comfortable,” said Truex, a two-time winner at Kansas who finished ninth. “Normally, when it’s hot, we are not very comfortable at all. It will be nice and comfortable with the heater on.”

Hamlin led for most of stage two before Harvick sneaked past him at the start-finish line for his 10th stage win of the season and 10 valuable playoff points. Ryan Blaney, a non-playoff driver, was third, followed by Bowman, Elliott and Keselowski.

Then, Hamlin, the winner of the last two races at Kansas, unexpectedly tagged the wall battling for position in turn four and had to make an unscheduled pit stop to replace his right rear tire. That dropped Hamlin to as far back as 29th place, and he settled for 15th.

Elliott, who had been battling communication problems with his headset, picked up his ninth stage win of the season in an incident-free first 80 lap-segment. Elliott, the fall 2018 winner at Kansas, led 44 laps in the stage and collected the bonus points ahead of Keselowski and Hamlin.

With 69 laps to go, former champion Kurt Busch, battling in the top five, suffered an engine failure in his No. 1 Chevrolet, ending his day. Busch, winless in 30 starts at Kanas Speedway, remained buried eighth in the standings and will have to win at either Texas or Martinsville to qualify for the final four in Phoenix.

Clint Bowyer of Emporia, who announced his retirement as a full-time Cup driver last week, finished 26th in his last start at his home track. Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, a three-time winner at Kansas who is also retiring at the end of the year, finished 31st.

NASCAR will return to Kansas Speedway for two race weekends in 2021, with the Cup races scheduled for May 2 and Oct. 24.

Xfinity: Briscoe makes his case

Chase Briscoe enjoyed the benefit of having Clint Bowyer’s NASCAR Cup pit crew in winning Saturday night’s Kansas Lottery 300. The dominant performance for Stewart-Haas racing left little doubt he’s ready to step into the SHR No. 14 Ford Cup car that Bowyer is vacating in order to join the Fox television crew.

Briscoe led 159 of the 167 laps Saturday and avoided frightening multi-car collisions at the start and end of the race. Most importantly, Briscoe won the opening race in the Xfinity Series playoffs’ Round of 8, which guarantees him a spot in the Championship 4 race in Phoenix on Nov. 7.

Moffitt takes Trucks victory

With victory in sight late in Saturday’s Clean Harbors 200, Brett Moffit wasn’t about to yield for anyone — not even his Gander RV Trucks Series teammates.

Moffitt apologized to teammate Zane Smith for what he called a “poor block” on the backstretch with three laps to go, with the pair battling for the lead. The move sent Smith into a long spin that ended his chances of victory and set up an overtime three-lap shootout — which Moffitt won, holding off Sheldon Creed.

Saturday was the first of three races in the Round of 8 of the Trucks Series playoffs, and Moffitt is now guaranteed a spot in the Championship 4 at the season finale in Phoenix.

This story was originally published October 18, 2020 at 5:03 PM.