How Joey Logano Captured His Second NASCAR Cup Championship

• Joey Logano led five times for 187 of the 312 laps in beating teammate Ryan Blaney, Championship 4 contender Ross Chastain, Chase Briscoe, and former champion Kevin Harvick.

• It was a somber day in NASCAR as Joe Gibbs Racing announced shortly before the start of Sunday's race that team co-owner Coy Gibbs, the 49-year-old son of Joe Gibbs and father of newly crowned Xfinity Series champion Ty Gibbs, had died in his sleep overnight.

• Elliott, who also won the championship in 2018, won five times during the 2022 season and advanced to Phoenix on Playoff points.

On an afternoon that never felt quite right from the start, Team Penske driver Joey Logano dominated NASCAR’s season-ending Cup Series Championship 500K for his second title and third for Hall of Fame owner Roger Penske.

Logano led five times for 187 of the 312 laps in beating teammate Ryan Blaney, Championship 4 contender Ross Chastain, Chase Briscoe, and former champion Kevin Harvick. The back half of the top-10 went to William Byron, former two-time champion Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, defending champion Kyle Larson, and Christopher Bell, another Championship 4 contender.

The 312-lap race on the oddly shaped 1-mile track was contested under the darkest of dark clouds.

Joe Gibbs Racing announced shortly before the start that team co-owner Coy Gibbs, the 49-year-old son of Joe Gibbs and father of newly crowned Xfinity Series champion Ty Gibbs, had died in his sleep overnight Saturday:

“It is with great sorrow that (JGR) confirms that Coy Gibbs went to be with the Lord in his sleep Saturday night (the release stated). The family appreciates all the thoughts and prayers and asks for privacy at this time.” No other details were released.

Coy was generally recognized as his father's successor whenever the 83-year-old NFL and NASCAR Hall of Famer retired. Gibbs raced briefly and was on his father’s coaching staff in Washington after an outstanding career as a linebacker at Stanford University. He is survived by his wife, Heather, sons Ty, Case and Jett, and daughter Elle. His older brother, J.D. Gibbs, died in 2019, also at age 49 of a neurological illness.

Ty won the 2022 Xfinity Series title by winning Saturday night’s season-ending 200-lap race. Ty, recently substituting for injured Kurt Busch at 23XI Racing, was replaced by Daniel Hemric for the championship-deciding Cup Series race. He is expected to succeed Kyle Busch in JGR’s No. 18 Toyota in the Cup Series next year.

The entire four-team Gibbs-owned stable of Bell, Kyle Busch, Hamlin, and former champion Martin Truex Jr. competed on Sunday afternoon. After 15 years and 56 of his 60 victories with the organization, Sunday marked Kyle Busch’s final start with the company before he joins Richard Childress Racing next year.

Logano, Chastain, Bell, and Chase Elliott (28th after a mid-race crash) started the season-ender as the only drivers eligible for the Cup title. They qualified for the Playoffs by winning during the regular season and survived the 16-driver, 10-race, four-round, elimination-style Playoff “tournament” to become the Championship 4 at Phoenix.

Logano, the 2018 champion, got there on the strength of his Championship 4-clinching victory at Las Vegas last month. Elliott won five times during the season and advanced to Phoenix on Playoff points. Bell’s clutch victories at Charlotte and again last weekend at Martinsville put him in the Championship 4. And Chastain’s famous/dramatic/spectacular/career-changing/oft-debated fourth-place charge at Martinsville last weekend gave him a Championship 4 spot.

Not part of the weekend’s showdown: two-time champion Kyle Busch and one-time champions Harvick, Larson, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. (FYI: former champion Kurt Busch was held out because of a mid-season head injury. A head injury also forced Alex Bowman out of the Playoffs).

Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner and frequent championship contender, didn’t make it, either. He was famously done in by Chastain’s spectacular last-lap charge at Martinsville that still resonates within the racing world. Winless Blaney made it through two rounds before also coming up short last weekend. Likewise, Byron and Briscoe moved through Rounds 1 and 2, but were eliminated at Martinsville.

Sunday’s race went very much as expected. In the No. 22 Pennzoil Ford, Logano, the odds-on betting favorite, started from the pole and effortlessly led all 60 laps of Stage 1 and the first 27 laps into Stage 2. He then led 68 consecutive laps through much of Stage 2. He fell behind Blaney and Chase Briscoe for much of the final half before rallying—there never seemed any doubt—to lead the final 30 laps. He and Blaney combined to lead 296 of the 312 laps, and Blaney seemed the only driver capable of keeping Logano from victory lane.

“I knew going into this thing that we were going to win the championship,” Logano said. “I told the guys we were the favorite from Daytona (in February) and we truly believed it. That’s the difference. I had a good team with a bunch of confidence, and we had all the reason in the world to be confident. I’ve never been truly this ready for a championship race. We did it, man, and I can't believe it.”

The victory was Logano’s fourth this year, his fifth counting the pre-season exhibition race in Los Angeles. All told, he’s won 31 Cup Series race and seems a lead-pipe cinch to someday be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He’s one of only 17 multi-time NASCAR champions.

“It felt like it took too long to get back to this point, but it’s so special to win championships,” he said. “It’s what you want; it’s the only thing I race for. Race wins are nice, but championships are what it’s all about. We were in great position there. Everybody on Team Penske team did so great. Teamwork from the get-go, working through practice together and everybody trying to put together what would be the best 22 car for us to win this championship. I can’t thank everyone enough for the opportunity. I know how bad (crew chief) Paul (Wolfe) wanted it; I’ve never seen him stress so much the last few weeks and I was right there with him the whole time. It was pretty special to get it.”

And Logano didn’t forget the Gibbs family: “Obviously, the news this morning with Coy; I don't know what to think. But obviously my condolences go to the Gibbs family. It was an incredible day for us (but) with kind of mixed emotions at the moment.”