LAS VEGAS – The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 8 kicked off Sunday with the South Point 400 in Las Vegas, where Joey Logano picked up his third win of the season.
Joey Logano won the South Point 400 to score his milestone 30th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his third of the season and his third at Las Vegas. His margin over second-place Ross Chastain was .817 of a second.
There were eight caution periods for a total of 42 laps.
All but 11 of the 36 drivers in the South Point 400 finished on the lead lap.
This was Ford’s series-leading 14th NASCAR Cup Series victory at Las Vegas. It won its first race at the track on March 1, 1998, with NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin.
It was the seventh race of a 10-week stretch of competition that ends in Arizona in November when just four drivers will compete in the highly anticipated NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway.
The eight drivers who were part of the playoff field in Sunday’s race included Logano, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, and Chase Briscoe. Kyle Larson, Daniel Suárez, Austin Cindric, and Alex Bowman were recently eliminated after the Round of 12 competition.
Stage 1 Winner: Bubba Wallace of 23XI Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Ryan Blaney of Team Penske (Ford)
- Chase Briscoe (Started 16th, Finished 4th / Running, completed 267 of 267 laps)
- Kevin Harvick (Started 13th, Finished 12th / Running, completed 267 of 267 laps)
- Aric Almirola (Started 23rd, Finished 18th / Running, completed 267 of 267 laps)
- Cole Custer (Started 24th, Finished 20th / Running, completed 267 of 267 laps)
Playoff Standings (with two races to go before Championship 4):
- Joey Logano (4,084 points) 1 win
- Ross Chastain (4,063 points) +18
- Chase Elliott (4,062 points) +17
- Denny Hamlin (4,051 points) +6
- William Byron (4,045 points) -6
- Chase Briscoe (4,042 points) -9
- Ryan Blaney (4,040 points) -11
- Christopher Bell (4,028 points) -23
Briscoe earned his fifth top-five of the season and his first top-five in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Las Vegas. Briscoe’s fourth-place result bettered his previous best finish at Las Vegas – 14th, earned last September.
This was Briscoe’s eighth top-10 this season and his fourth straight. He finished fifth on Sept. 25 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, and 10th on Oct. 2 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and ninth last Sunday at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval.
“We weren’t the greatest at the start of the race and, obviously, it didn’t really matter there at the end,” said Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Code 3 Associates Ford Mustang. “We put ourselves in position and, when I was running second and Justin (Haley) was in the lead, I wish that that run would’ve gone to the end. I feel like I was probably going to get by him in the next five laps. We had such a big gap compared to everyone else. Nobody else had tires. We were all on equal tires. On that last restart, I just didn’t get the job done. The 31 (Haley) stalled me out and let Ross (Chastain) put us three wide, which put me in a really bad spot into (turn) three. When you give up the lead, you’re kind of just stuck. Who knows? Those guys were coming on tires and I doubt I would’ve been able to hold them off, but I would’ve felt better about it if I had the opportunity. We kept ourselves in the ballgame and still have a lot of work to do, but we still have a chance. We’re running the best we have all year long, and that is about all you can ask for.”
Briscoe led once for six laps – his first laps led at Las Vegas.
This was Harvick’s third straight top-15 at Las Vegas. He finished ninth in September 2021 and 12th this past March. Harvick finished seventh in Stage 2 to earn four bonus points.
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Dixie Vodka 400 on Sunday, Oct. 23 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It is the eighth race of the 10-race NASCAR Playoffs and the second race in the Round of 8. The Dixie Vodka 400 starts at 2:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
