For the third time in seven years, Joey Logano claimed the NASCAR Cup Series championship.
He did so by fending off Penske teammate Ryan Blaney in a spirited duel over the final 20 laps, the culmination of a race long battle in which they drove the two best cars, securing one of the best overall seasons in company history for team owner Roger Penske.
Team Penske now adds the Cup Series championship, its third in a row, to the IMSA and WEC championships with Porsche, its 20th Indianapolis 500 with Josef Newgarden and the Rolex 24. Penske won 21 races with 14 drivers.
Logano is the first to three championships under this format, which debuted in 2014, and accomplished this goal after a season that did not produce season long excellence. They won in quintuple overtime for their only regular season victory, getting them into the playoffs, won the playoff opener at Atlanta, were eliminated after the race at the Charlotte Roval but advanced when Alex Bowman was disqualified later that night and immediately won the next week at Las Vegas to make the championship race.
With almost a month to prepare for one race, crew chief Paul Wolfe gave Logano the best car, and his driver delivered.
“I love the playoffs, I love it man,” Logano said. “What a team, what a Penske battle there at the end. Three of them? That’s truly special.”
This was also the first time that Penske had two drivers finish 1-2 in a championship across any division or discipline.
“It’s all about the people,” Penske said. “My name might be on the door, but it’s all about the people who make the difference and we sure have them on this team.”
Blaney closed the gap to Logano in the closing laps, even getting to the back bumper, but just couldn’t find away around his fellow teammate.
“At least a Penske car won it,” said Blaney. “They put together a great playoffs, and we’re happy. If we’re going to race somebody, I’m happy it was him for the championship, and happy to be 1-2 for Roger, three in a row for Roger, super amazing, and Ford.”
The final four also featured William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports and Tyler Reddick, of 23XI, owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan..
Byron finished third and was leading on the final restart due to a well-timed caution in which his No. 24 team decided to run long during green flag pit stops but couldn’t fend off Logano on the final restart.
“Makes you hungrier, but also just more experience in what it takes,” said Byron, the Daytona 500 winner. “I feel like this style of track has been tough on us, and we made a lot of strides this year, but still more to go. If we can just kind of inch up on this style of track, I know we’re so good at all the other ones, and we can put it all together.”
Reddick finished a distant sixth and wasn’t part of the championship mix most of the race.
Logano, 34, led 107 of the 312 laps, a testament to winning into the Final Four early and giving time for Wolfe to start working on Phoenix.
“Our team is better under pressure,” Logano said. “The race started in Vegas for us. The amount of work and effort that went into building this race car right here, the amount of time, I don’t think anyone works harder than us. We were up at 6 in the morning this morning going over stuff. The guys just want it bad and I’m glad we delivered.”