Joey Logano has reason to celebrate as he is the first driver to lock a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Round. On the other hand, Bubba Wallace will likely prefer to have what happened in Vegas stay there.
Logano passed Ross Chastain for the lead with three laps remaining and held on to score his third win of 2022 and third at Las Vegas Motor Speedway; he also reaches the thirty-win mark in his Cup career. Interestingly, he has made the Championship Round every other year since the introduction of the system in 2014, with 2018 and 2020 also seeing him advance by winning the first race in the Round of 8.
“All you want to do is get to the Championship Four when the season starts and race for a championship, and we’ve got the team to do it. I don’t see why we can’t win at this point,” said Logano. “Things are looking really good for us. […]
“Just a lot of adversity fought through the last fifty laps or so. I thought we were going to win and then we kind of fell out and then had the tires, and racing Ross was fun. He was doing a good job air-blocking me, and just trying to be patient, and eventually, I was like, ‘I’ve got to go here.'”
While Logano has plenty of reason to be upbeat, however, fan discourse mainly surrounded Wallace. On lap 94, after leading much of and winning Stage #1, he was squeezed into the wall by Kyle Larson on the frontstretch, prompting him to retaliate by hooking Larson. As the two were shot at the outside wall, Wallace’s Toyota ally Christopher Bell was also caught in the crossfire as he got clipped and spun.
After exiting their cars, Wallace pushed Larson multiple times though the latter did not attempt to hit back before they were separated.
“When you get shoved in the fence, deliberately like [Larson] did, trying to force me to lift, the steering was gone, and he just so happened to be there,” stated Wallace. “I hate it for our team. 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. 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.
“He knows what he did was wrong. He wanted to question what I was doing, and he never cleared me. I just hate it for our team.”
The wreck immediately puts Bell at a disadvantage as he sinks to the bottom of the playoff standings. He described it as “disappointing because our performance is capable of racing for the championship,” but did not explicitly condemn Wallace for the move as he believed NASCAR will “follow protocol of whatever they’ve done in the past.”
“The good thing is I feel better about winning one of those two races than I did winning the Roval,” he continued. “We’ve just had really, really strong Camrys, really all year long. We will see if we can go pull another rabbit out of the hat.”
Race results
| Finish | Start | Number | Driver | Team | Manufacturer | Laps | Status |
| 1 | 5 | 22 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 2 | 11 | 1 | Ross Chastain | Trackhouse Racing Team | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 3 | 18 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 267 | Running |
| 4 | 16 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 5 | 31 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 267 | Running |
| 6 | 1 | 8 | Tyler Reddick | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 7 | 27 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 267 | Running |
| 8 | 22 | 43 | Erik Jones | Petty GMS Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 9 | 21 | 16 | A.J. Allmendinger* | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 10 | 10 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 11 | 17 | 48 | Noah Gragson* | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 12 | 13 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 13 | 3 | 24 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 14 | 28 | 31 | Justin Haley | Kaulig Racing | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 15 | 12 | 17 | Chris Buescher | RFK Racing | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 16 | 6 | 99 | Daniel Suárez | Trackhouse Racing Team | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 17 | 25 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | RFK Racing | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 18 | 23 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 19 | 15 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 20 | 24 | 41 | Cole Custer | Stewart-Haas Racing | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 21 | 20 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 22 | 19 | 23 | Ty Gibbs* | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 267 | Running |
| 23 | 29 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | JTG Daugherty Racing | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 24 | 30 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | Spire Motorsports | Chevrolet | 267 | Running |
| 25 | 35 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports | Ford | 267 | Running |
| 26 | 8 | 21 | Harrison Burton | Wood Brothers Racing | Ford | 266 | Running |
| 27 | 34 | 51 | Cody Ware | Rick Ware Racing | Ford | 264 | Running |
| 28 | 4 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Team Penske | Ford | 260 | Running |
| 29 | 2 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Team Penske | Ford | 259 | Running |
| 30 | 36 | 78 | B.J. McLeod* | Live Fast Motorsports | Ford | 256 | Running |
| 31 | 26 | 15 | J.J. Yeley* | Rick Ware Racing | Ford | 253 | Running |
| 32 | 32 | 77 | Landon Cassill* | Spire Motorsports | Chevrolet | 246 | Accident |
| 33 | 33 | 42 | Ty Dillon | Petty GMS Motorsports | Chevrolet | 237 | Suspension |
| 34 | 7 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Joe Gibbs Racing | Toyota | 94 | DVP |
| 35 | 14 | 5 | Kyle Larson^ | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 94 | Accident |
| 36 | 9 | 45 | Bubba Wallace | 23XI Racing | Toyota | 94 | Accident |
^ – Currently in owner playoffs
Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points
