The adjustments to a major offseason overhaul at Team Penske continued Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where miscommunication between Joey Logano and his new crew chief led to a botched final pit stop in the NASCAR Cup Series race. Logano still wound up in Victory Lane for the second year in a row, winning a two-lap sprint to the finish that ended under caution.
A caution with six laps remaining forced teams to make strategic decisions, and crew chief Paul Wolfe told Logano to head to pit road for new tires. Logano didn’t hear Wolfe and remained on the track, a move that cycled him into the lead but put him in position to hold off a slew of contenders on fresh tires.
Logano knew it was critical to get his Ford separated from the pack quickly on the restart to have any shot at the win. “Clean air was going to be key with old tires,” he said. “If I got swallowed up by a couple cars, I was just going to fall backwards really quick.”
Logano got a push from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the restart with two laps remaining, then threw a block on William Byron to maintain his position out front in what Logano called “the winning move.”
“I was able to get down in front of him and then be able to separate myself a little bit from the field,” he said.