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Joey Logano

Motorsport

NASCAR News Today: Another title, Another year for Team Penske with No.22’s Joey Logano back on top to prize off team-mate Ryan Blaney with his 3rd Championship win

by Sports Benches

It’s been another golden championship season of Team Penske Fords ever since when the Next Gen Chassis era began three seasons ago. 

The driver of the day though belongs to Joey Logano who stole the Drivers’ Crown off his No.12 team-mate & last year’s champion Ryan Blaney following a really great battle between those two on a few occasions – including the final stage when 1-2 others may have crashed out – before Joey pulled off the winning move & stayed there just in time to clinch yet another silverware piece for his No.22 team. 

Again, it has to come down to one huge winner as Logano both had the fight and championship-winning experience to lock up for the 3rd time that goes back from 2018 to 2022 & now 2024. 

For Blaney, it’s never a good feeling being 2nd best but hey, he raced really well to defend his crown against his team-mate Logano. At the end of the day, it’s all about great racing that makes Team Penske the most successful Ford Cup team over the last few years, and sure Blaney will back in 12 months time to hopefully hoist his Drivers’ Championship title No.2 at this same Phoenix race track.

William Byron finished 3rd in the No.24 Chevy Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports where he wasn’t quite up to Team Penske’s standards for the ultimate prize when it comes to the consistency including late race restarts. But he had a fantastic season though where he always finishes Top 3, Top 5 as well as a few regular season wins here and there. 

If he can translate with wins into Playoffs time next year, then the best of Byron and the No.24 Hendrick team should be yet to come.

We also still haven’t heard much of Toyota when you compare to Penske and Hendrick when you got Tyler Reddick finishing 6th behind another consistent Top 5 finisher Christopher Bell from Gibbs as the 4th and final Championship 4 contender for the manufacturer’s satellite Cup team at 23XI Racing, with team-mate Bubba Wallace in 7th. It remains to be seen what will happen going into next year since 23XI is having a really tough time alongside Front Row Motorsports at court & unfortunately, it didn’t go their way as per judge ruling before the weekend.

It’s not just 23XI who is walking into unknown territory but one of their co-owners Denny Hamlin would most likely not be donning the FedEx colours anymore  next season & he too finished 11th for his No.11 Gibbs Toyota team after missing the Championship 4 cup for yet another year in season 2024. Whoever comes in to support Denny, let’s hope he can adjust his expectations so he doesn’t end up disappointed next time as he’s still yet to win a Drivers’ Championship at age 43.

I wish he can get a decent enough crew chief who has been there & done that before with winning championships, but all he can do is just win them all at Playoffs time if he can and we might finally see the best of Denny as a driver. If Justin Allgaier can do like he did as a finally first-time Xfinity Series Champion yesterday, then so could Denny no matter what happens. 

In the meantime, if you’re a big Penske fan, particularly for Joey, then today’s your lucky day! No doubt Penske will go on to be the 2020s version of Hendrick Motorsports if they keep on adding more and more championship titles every season as congrats to Joey once again with his 3rd Cup crown all coming from the same place of Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway. 

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NASCAR Race Today: Another late Team Penske Round of 8 win this time by No.12 Ford’s Ryan Blaney at Martinsville ahead of his season-title defense for next weekend

by Sports Benches

Yes, it’s that time of the year when eligible Playoff drivers who haven’t booked their Championship 4 ticket yet usually leave things to the last minute during the last Round of 8 Cup race. However for some when they were fortunate enough to get that golden ticket opportunity, it’s within good reason thanks to Ryan Blaney’s win today in the No.12 Ford Mustang for Team Penske at Martinsville Speedway. 

Now there’s going to be not one but two Team Penske cars alongside a 23XI Toyota (Tyler Reddick) and a Hendrick Chevy (William Byron) on what could be yet another golden Team Penske Championship year for the third straight time ahead of next weekend’s season-finale race at Phoenix Raceway.

You just couldn’t believe the time has come for Team Penske to dominate this three-week semis swing even though we haven’t heard much from them beforehand. But hey, they’ve been there and have done before with huge success and it would no surprise if either the defending champ Ryan Blaney or Joey Logano take home that championship trophy once the 2024 season is done.

First of all, Christopher Bell would’ve easily been the other last two favourites to book into Phoenix – provided if he can provide a good enough finish – as one of the championship front-runners like it was back in 2022 and 2023. But then he made an illegal wall move towards the end there on Byron (the actual Championship 4 contender instead) that got himself DQ’d and NASCAR fined him with a penalty there on the spot post-race. He’ll have to wait till next year now for his next championship opportunity as still plenty to offer in the No.20 Gibbs Toyota at age 30.

Also, feeling sorry there for experienced veteran Denny Hamlin who overcame yesterday’s crash to force his way back up through the field with a spare No.11 Toyota Camry in 6th – the best placed Toyota/Gibbs car today at Martinsville.

Unfortunately, it’s still not quite enough to book in his championship shot yet again for season 2024 when a win was still required that began with the Team Penske’s championship glory back in 2022. Yes, he also could’ve done it last weekend at Homestead if it wasn’t for that poor last restart & also if the last yellow didn’t come out when other eligible Championship 4 contenders already have better Playoff form than him it as seen with the Team Penske duo & even one or the other Toyota team-mates like Bell and his 23XI employee of course in Reddick.

Although there’s lots more to come from Denny as a co-owner for 23XI Racing with Reddick still in the fight, but as a driver, he really needs a big impact all along at Playoffs time next year like winning all these set of races if he wants to finally win the championship so badly.

What else? There’s also some Ford cars in and out of the Top 10 with Brad Keselowski who finished 9th in his co-owned No.6 Ford for RFK Racing as well as Noah Gragson 11th as the highest Stewart-Haas Ford finisher ahead of a few other team-mates down the Top 15 mark for his No.10 crew. And don’t forget New Zealand’s Shane Van Gisbergen in 12th for Kaulig Racing’s No.16 Chevy Cup team. Yes, I know Austin Dillon aka AD finished 7th for the No.3 Childress Chevy but he was there for the wrong reasons unfortunately when it comes to that late race radio drama.

And if I was going to choose a championship winner for next Monday’s season finale for Cup, it’s going to be a touch one for sure. Now based on regular season form then it would be William Byron; if not, going with Logano to get this done for a 3rd Drivers’ Championship.

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NASCAR Race Results: Joey Logano bounces back from a lifeline thanks to Alex Bowman’s DQ to being in the running towards another Championship fight after his win at Las Vegas

by Sports Benches


Today’s NASCAR Cup race that began the first of the three semi-finals ended up with a huge twist on the road to Championship 4 Finale at Phoenix for next month & gotta say congrats to Joey Logano on becoming the first eligible Playoffs driver to book in that season-finale spot for the No.22 Penske Ford team following his unreal late move on Daniel Suarez to take home the race win with 6 laps left from Las Vegas. 

So gutted for Suarez there after leading the race for so long under green until a late yellow came out after Ty Gibbs spun out that late and he just couldn’t stop Logano& later Christopher Bell in his tracks before the race was over. But again not a bad result though to finish third for Trackhouse’s No.99 team (Chevy) just one week after being eliminated from the Round of 12 Playoffs as let’s hope we can see more of him in a bid to compete in the semi-finals for the first time late next year.

Meanwhile, Seven days ago Joey Logano thought he was out of the Playoffs running after the Charlotte Roval race but then a shock DQ from Alex Bowman in the No.48 Hendrick Chevy gave him a lifeline to keep his Championship hopes alive over Bowman’s ride height/underweight car failure. Now he’s in for a shot towards a possible 3rd Drivers’ Championship crown since his last triumph back in 2022, having first won it when Homestead-Miami had its last moments as a season-finale venue back in 2018.

Who knows? He could even make Roger Penske & the Blue Oval (Ford) something more legendary with yet another Cup crown for a three peat in season 2024 where Ryan Blaney (No.12 team) became a first time champion nearly a year ago.

1 down, 2 more races to go with Homestead in Miami around the cotner as there’s 3 more Championship 4 slots still left to fill – so all hope is not lost just yet.

You just couldn’t believe it can you? when there’s several drivers going out of control with spins and hits along the way including Tyler Reddick in the No.45 Toyota Camry for 23XI Racing while there’s another lot out there who managed to bounce back with redemption. It’s a shame that Tyler’s race unfortunately ended early when he tried to go around Chase Elliott on the outside line but then he was collected towards the front stretch that went airborne. He is now sitting below the Playoff cut-off line (6th) having always been inside the Top 4 prior to today thanks to this regular-season championship win from early last month.

Semi-Finals Playoff watch 

What else? Christopher Bell always a consistent front runner following his 2nd placed finish for the No.20 Toyota for Gibbs, he would love nothing more than a win though as he wants to treat every other race now as a Championship 4 finale. So does William Byron who is also on the same front running boat as Bell over in the No.24 Hendrick car for Chevy when he finished 4th but again, a win though would help him go to that next level which would hopefully be a season-ending win & also the championship title.

Even though Denny Hamlin finished not  bad in 8th in the other Gibbs Toyota for the No.11 team, he still needs a Top 3 finish upfront or even a win would do it if he wants to finally win his first championship title as a driver this year. 

He’s only 27 points behind the Playoffs bubble in 5th spot, so all eyes on Denny now if he can get that job done by usurping Bell as the best Gibbs driver – right now he’s sitting as 2nd best.

All other shoutouts

And finally here’s some more shoutouts where a few other drivers had a really good day off the back through their survival of the fittest by steering clear of yellows. It’s been a while from John Hunter Nemechek in the No.42 Toyota for Legacy Motor Club since New Hampshire back in July (8th) with a 9th-placed finish – still a long way to go before LMC can finally fulfil their full potential based on the recent personnel changes they’ve made by co-owner and 7 x Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.

Plus, there’s a few other Fords marking in between the Top 10-15 finishing spots on top of Logano’s unreal day for Team Penske. Chris Buescher finished 10th for the No.17 RFK Racing team, Corey LaJoie posting yet another Top 15 result once again in 14th just one month after that swap deal with Justin Haley (who moved the other direction to his former long-time No.7 Spire home) & he does not disappoint so far in the No.51 for Rick Ware Racing, and Harrison Burton steered the iconic No.21 Mustang home through the every end in 15th for Wood Brothers Racing.

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Motorsport

NASCAR News Today: Joey Logano the first driver to make it into the Round of 12 with the win after a great day for Team Penske & the Blue Oval at Atlanta Motor Speedway

by Sports Benches

It was massive Ford (Mustang) & even Team Penske day to light up the opening 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race at Atlanta Motor Speedway where each of their three drivers won each stage (Ryan Blaney in Stage 1 for the No.12 followed by Austin Cindric in Stage 2 for the No.2) as today’s winner was all about Joey Logano in the No.22 side for Team Penske. 

It’s been a while since his last win in Nashville back in late June where he had a really top day upfront – mainly in the Top 5 – before more late cautions went his way to reach top spot, and there goes Joey Logano with his 2nd win of 2024 & also being the first driver now to advance into the second Round of 12 Playoffs. So nothing to worry about there until Kansas at the end of this month where he will either need to win again or stay consistent with his results up front on the road to the Championship 4 Finale as it’s party time for Joey & his No.22 Team Penske crew right now on the way home.

What else? Oh so close from Daniel Suarez there who finished 2nd in the No.99 Chevy Camaro for Trackhouse & he too loves racing at this track off the back of his early-round win back in late February. As long as he can stay consistently in the Top 5-10, then sure we will get to see more of him when it comes to the next round and even semi-finals round of Playoffs – keep your head up!

Meanwhile, Christopher Bell continues to be so good in the No.20 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing as he finished 4th & is currently 2nd on drivers’ points behind reigning champ & 3rd-placed finisher in this 2nd Atlanta race Ryan Blaney. This is the man who has made it to the last two season-finale races and he would love to make his 3rd season-finale attempt being his championship-winning breakthrough at Cup level.

And hats off to a few others that got away with some good finishes just outside the Top 10 mark. We begin with Daniel Hemric in 11th for Kaulig Racing (Chevy), Justin Haley 12th for Rick Ware Racing (Ford), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 14th for JTG Daugherty Racing (Chevy) & don’t forget the Spire Motorsports Chevy duo of Corey LaJoie (No.7) and Carson Hocevar (No.77) who both came home in 15th and 16th respectively.

Next stop: Watkins Glen International where we will be going road course racing albeit in a slightly different time of the year next Monday rather than always August in New York as the Round of 16 is still up for grabs for some drivers if they really want to be in to win until the first cut-off ends with the Bristol Motor Speedway night race on Saturday 21st September 2024.

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NASCAR News Today: Thoughts on Austin Dillon stripped of his Playoffs eligibility despite keeping his controversial win from the Cook Out 400 weekend in Richmond 

by Sports Benches

So there we have it, after a long few days out from that Richmond race finish controversy, Austin Dillon of the No.3 Chevy Camaro for Richard Childress Racing – who intentionally wrecked both Team Penske Ford’s Joey Logano and then Joey Gibbs Racing Toyota’s Denny Hamlin following the final two turns for the race win – can keep his win but his Playoffs berth though will not count as a result of this investigation by NASCAR. 

RCR on the other hand is still furious about this decision with the plans of an appeal over the next coming days – good luck with that! But what RCR and No.3 of AD needs to do now is not make up any more shortcuts in order to cleanly win races next time with only three regular rounds to go. Should he win either one of the last three regular races, he will enter the post-season Playoffs with zero Playoff points meaning he will have to also win another Round of 16 races to keep his hopes alive.

Gotta say it’s being well said at last as this should’ve been taken action immediately after the race unlike post-race inspections with race cars. You can defend AD and RCR all you like when the No.3 crew would like him to spin and win that race and he did that to make this happen but then this shouldn’t be acceptable in the world of Motorsport at all including NASCAR, so again AD needs to now learn that lesson & not upset everyone in anyway like he did to both drivers at the overtime white flag.

Another party that is worth consider appealing is Joey Logano who verbally unleashed into AD post-race for intentionally spinning him out into the wall that ultimately cost Joey his race win where he finished down in 19th rather than a front row finish as hoped for the Blue Oval. He received a fine of $50,000 USD by NASCAR for his mis-conduct and it’s not fair on him to walk away empty handed that isn’t his own fault other than being so frustrated to see someone who wrecked him celebrate in victory lane at the same time. Maybe NASCAR should take away the penalty fee off Joey and not let RCR give a free pass appeal anymore after all this chaos that took them so long. 

Enough said and we move onto the next Cup race this weekend for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway & this 3rd last regular season race is expected to be Rick Allen’s last as NBC’s NASCAR lead commentator, with Aussie Leigh Diffey to take over from next weekend’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 night race at Daytona International Speedway.

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NASCAR Race News from the weekend: Austin Dillon spins his way with the Cook Out 400 race win at Richmond Raceway in the No.3 Chevy for Richard Childress Racing

by Sports Benches

It may have been a dominant Toyota front row fest for the most part other than the Daniel Suarez Stage 2 win in the Trackhouse Chevy but look who’s back in victory lane? It’s Austin Dillon in the No.3 Chevy Camaro with the win for Richard Childress Racing following his race-winning bump past Turn 4 on both Team Penske’s Joey Logano & Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin towards the checkered flag on overtime when Ryan Preece spun out that led to a caution with two to go.

Now for some NASCAR fans, particularly for those who go for Logano & even Hamlin, this last lap restart on the run home was both good and bad. Well, the sport could’ve looked at this one a lot deeper other than post-race inspections but that’s stock car racing unfortunately unlike most other racing series we see on-track. First of all, good to see AD back in victory lane for the first time since the summer 2022 Daytona race with the same previous crew chief of Justin Alexander, who has been in and out of the No.3 pit box as time goes by until sometime earlier this year. Yet, he’s back for the third time now of asking to help turn his form around once again and yes it did work outwell with another lucky charm for him and Justin together like it was a few times before as AD wouldn’t be there to celebrate today or these past victories if it wasn’t for his best crew chief.

Gotta say that 2nd half performance after the first two stages within the Top 6-7 worked well in AD’s favour off the back of these important pit road adjustments beforehand that helped him make a brilliant charge on the front row. He rolled off the line from 6th aftern an excellent run in qualifying, having never looked out of place with a fast race car on his hands while he remained patient while others drop out all along to get what what he wants. RCR hasn’t been bad when it comes to submitting at least one of their cars over the last few years at Playoffs time & if Kyle Busch can at least win the last few regular season races for the other No.8 car, then no doubt they would be a decent threat up front to the other 3/4 car big teams.

Looking at the Toyotas, you gotta feel for them when these cars fired off really well with some promising signs across the first two stages. Then they had some of the problems happening when it comes to the long last stage with Martin Truex Jr. forced to pull due to mechanical issues while some lacked inconsistency on the long runs like Christopher Bell other than a good Denny day except his last lap overtime drama where he finished 2nd. Seeing four Toyota cars in the Top 6 ain’t bad though with Denny’s co-owned 23XI Racing team also having a great field day in 3rd & 4th thanks to the No.45 of Tyler Reddick & No.23 of Bubba Wallace as Toyota needs to continue making that firepower right going into the next Cup round at Michigan.

Meanwhile, the Ford cars also didn’t have a great day either when Joey Logano was unluckily spun out whilst trying to win with fellow Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney being the best driver there just outside the Top 10 in 11th & the rest of these drivers languishing towards the back end of the finish line. And last but not least, shoutout to Carson Hocevar, who finished 8th in the No.77 Chevy for Spire Motorsports. Now he might not have cracked these Top 5 finishes just yet since he went straight from Trucks but a few Top 10 finishes though ain’t bad and he’s even leading the Rookie standings by a small margin.

Three more regular rounds to go with Michigan, Daytona and Darlington to come as good to see NASCAR back following a long two-week Olympics break and we’re almost there to make up the last 16 drivers that will be competing in the 10 week Playoffs campaign for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship trophy starting early next month at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

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Watkins Glen: Larson scores second straight win, Raikkonen retires in Nascar debut

by Admin

Kyle Larson claimed victory in a thrilling race at Watkins Glen International that was delayed several times due to bad weather. It was the second straight win for the defending Nascar Cup Series champion and his 18th career win overall. In a dramatic finish, Larson made a great maneuver to pass Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott. Despite ultimately finishing the race in fourth place, Elliott finished the regular season of the Nascar championship in first place, which he secured by winning the first place after the first stage at Watkins Glen.

After the race, Larson commented on a key maneuver in the race: “I knew that was my only opportunity to get by him. I feel like our cars were pretty equal today. Had a lot of fun after the green-flag cycle trying to chase him down. Kind of burned my stuff up a little bit.” But the restarts kept me in it and kept our team in it. I’m proud of my guys. Good to get another win here at Watkins Glen and get some more bonus points going into the Playoffs, we haven’t had a lot here this year.” Elliot congratulated his teammate on the victory: “Congratulations to Kyle and everybody on the 5 team and at Hendrick Motorsports for getting the win.” AJ Allmendinger and Joey Logano finished the race ahead of Elliott.

The race at Watkins Glen was special because never before had a larger number of international drivers had the opportunity to compete in a single race within the Nascar Cup Series. At the aforementioned race, we had the opportunity to watch drivers from as many as seven countries. Most of the drivers are, quite logically, competitors from the USA. In addition, at Watkins Glen we had the opportunity to see drivers from Mexico, the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Finland and England. This data shows that Nascar is becoming more and more popular outside the American continent from year to year. Of the international drivers at Watkins Glen, the best position was achieved by Daniel Suarez, who took fifth place.

The mentioned race, which is the penultimate in the regular part of the season, was marked by the debut of Kimi Raikkonen, the former world champion in F1. His debut performance in Nascar ended in ingloriously, although at one point the Finnish driver was among the top ten ranked drivers. Kimi started the race in the 27th position, and at one point he was occupying a high eighth position. Unfortunately, he ended the race prematurely by crashing into the guard rail. Regardless of the fact that he finished the race in the mentioned way, Raikkonen is satisfied with the new experience in his already rich racing career.

“Yeah, for sure, but it’s always hard to know especially now here like what states (of the pit) stop and you know the tire life on that,” he said. “I felt that we had very good speed and especially after the pit stops but maybe I was a bit too harsh on the tires on the one of the sets.”

The other internationals didn’t make a name for themselves at Watkins Glen either. The best place was achieved by the German driver, Mike Rockenfeller, who finished the race in 30th place. Dutchman Loris Hezemans was three positions lower. At the very back with Raikkonen were his former colleague from F1, Daniel Kvyat and the Englishman Kyle Tilley.

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