Joey Logano passed Daniel Suarez for the lead and held off a hard-charging Christopher Bell in a final 73-lap fuel run to win the Round of Eight opener at Las Vegas. Logano and Suarez both took their last fuel on Lap 194 and stretched that tankful to the end. Bell split the final run and topped off 35 laps later. The extra fuel allowed him to hammer down and eventually catch and pass Suarez but came up 0.662 seconds short of the win.
One more lap could have made the difference.
Logano was the last driver into the Round of Eight as he was eliminated after his finish at the Charlotte ROVAL only to find himself back in two hours after the race when Alex Bowman failed post-race inspection. The driver of the Penske #22 Dark Horse Mustang then took immediate advantage of his unprecedented opportunity and punched his ticket to the Finals at Phoenix with the win to become the first in the Championship Four.
Logano only lead one time-the final six laps of the race passing Daniel Suarez for the fourth and final Racing Lead Change to win the race. With the win, Logano now finds himself atop the Racing Lead Change Leaderboard scoring 24 RLCs pulling ahead of Kyle Larson (23 RLCs) and Denny Hamlin (22 RLCs).
Vegas had a total of 13 Lead Changes among 10 drivers with Christopher Bell leading 4 times (2 RLCs) for 155 laps. Tyler Reddick scored the other RLC before he barrel-rolled on the front stretch to end his day.
A breakdown of the Lead Changes and Racing Lead Changes are as follows:
The updated Racing Lead Change Standings now find Joey Logano on top with Larson and Hamlin on his diffuser. Drivers in bold are remaining Playoff Drivers.
The Vegas Passing Breakdown (all positions) shows 3824 Green Flag Passes, which was down over 800 passes from the Spring Race and approximately 400 in Quality Passes. Harrison Burton had the most Green Flag Passes, while William Byron was most active up front. The passes were distributed towards the back of the field. The following is a numeric breakdown of the passes:
Final Thoughts
Racing Lead Changes may to be a definitive indicator of a driver’s chances to win a Championship but find it interesting that Logano was the first to qualify for Championship Four and is also atop the RLC Leaderboard. Maybe the driver who can pass for the lead the most may have a decent chance to get the big trophy at the end of the season.
Also, Joey has taken a lot of criticism as being “undeserving” or “unqualified” to be this far in the Playoffs. Those critics point to his “lucky” wins, low average finishes, average running position and low number of laps led as proof. What is not mentioned is his three wins ties him with more “deserving” drivers like Christopher Bell, William Byron, and Denny Hamlin for second in wins. Not bad company. Had it not been the last corner antics by Richmond race winner Austin Dillon, he would be sitting in second all by himself with four wins.
And his position as a 3 win/24 RLC Champion might be an easier defense than say a 1 win/6 RLC Chase Elliott Championship.
How is it going to play out? We have three races to settle it all. Let’s say we tune into Homestead and find out.
Till we meet again…
Thunder On… and Stay Safe!
David Nance
Photo Credit (cover): Meg Oliphant/Getty Images
I kinda got bored in part of this race, but parts of it were exciting. It is always good when you write an article which gives us the stats.
You know, I have no problem with Joey being in the chase. True, he had a lot of problems at time and was losing points, but it was not always his fault. It seems racing is so different than it used to be and a lot of drivers (like Hamlin) hold back in the first 2 stages and then drive like crazy in the last stage, thus some creating more incidents which may determine the outcome of the race. The whole race is so different nowadays, it seems. At any rate, your stats mean a lot to some of us who just don’t pay attention to them during the race.
Hope all of this made sense.
Thank you, David. I really like reading these to see what really happened.
Thanks Vivian.
I realize I’m tracking an obscure metric but you know, back in the day, fans would stand up to see a pass for the lead. It was a measure of competitiveness and excitement. To think that with all that is at stake and all the gimmicks that have been applied to race that there would be more Racing Lead Changes. 33 races into the season and the leader has 24 with 7 in one race. Anemic in my opinion and points to issues that haven’t been overcome yet.
But tune in Monday and you’ll hear a day long narrative of how great things are.
I try to keep the whining out of the stories, just put the numbers out there and let people draw their own conclusions. I think maybe, just maybe a few more people are starting to look and say hmmm.
Hope we see a lot of lead changes Sunday.
Thanks again.
I remember standing up to watch passes for the lead. I remember getting excited watching the race on tv. Things have changed so much, haven’t they?
Sure has. Not all changes are improvements…