It’s Joey Logano’s world and everyone is just living in it.
The NASCAR Cup Series concluded on Sunday with Logano clinching the 2022 title. That makes him a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, having won the title in 2018 as well.
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Logano lost on the last run to Chase Elliott in 2020, so this was his revenge race. Though, Elliot didn’t put up much of a fight.
After a long and exciting season, four drivers (out of the 36 total who raced) set out to battle for the 2022 Cup Series championship crown – Logan, Elliott, Ross Chastain and Christopher Bell – and Logano proved victorious.
The 312-lap race’s first stage started with everyone trailing Logano, who had the advantage of the first pit stall. Logano sat at the top of the leaderboard after the first 60 laps.
Emotions were already high, especially for Bell, considering the devastating news about Coy Gibbs, announced right before the race.
Logano continued to dominate in the second stage, with his three other Championship 4 competitors fairly far behind him, until Ryan Blaney threatened Logano’s first-place spot, seeking his first win of the season.
Soon after, Logano fell to third and Chastain, who has two wins this season (COTA & Talladega), crept up to fifth and Bell to eighth. After more than halfway, it was clear Elliott wasn’t catching up.
It was a toss-up between Blaney, Logano, Chastain and Chase Briscoe for the last 30 laps, but by the end of 312 miles, Logano placed first, Blaney placed second, Chastain clinched third and Briscoe fourth.
Sunday was Chastain’s and Bell’s first appearance in the Championship 4, while Elliott won the title in 2020 and Logano did so in 2018.
Bell, who won the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville last week, was the only driver with multiple wins in the 2022 playoffs. Elliott, who won the 2020 NASCAR Cup championship, also won the 2022 regular season.
“Experience is one thing you can’t teach,” said Logano in a pre-show interview with NBC Sports, and he was right.