By Nicholas Sterling
Typically, when you’re in Las Vegas, you have to be prepared to take a gamble. Paul Wolfe and Joey Logano took a late gamble and hit the jackpot.
Wolfe’s decision to leave his new driver on the track paid off as Logano cruised to his second straight win at the Las Vegas spring race.
Appearing as if Logano was going to come up short, as he was passed by teammate Ryan Blaney with 13 laps to go, he fell back to third just four laps later. It looked like a hard-charging Alex Bowman was going to battle it out with Blaney for the win until the No. 6 car of Ross Chastain spun out with five laps to go.
Thankfully, the spin was not nearly as bad as the crash Ryan Newman had in that same car last week at Daytona.
Blaney and Bowman pitted for fresh tires and Logano stayed out. Logano won the race while Blaney and Bowman finished 11th and 13th, respectively.
It appeared the day was going to be dominated by Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr., but they both suffered tire issues.
The top ten was full of drivers you wouldn’t expect to see. In his second start with the famed Wood Brothers, fan-favorite Matt Dibenedetto matched a career-best second-place finish. Bubba Wallace earned just his fifth career top ten finish with a sixth-place run. Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson placed one spot better in fifth.
While the final results may not show it, the Hendrick Motorsports car flexed their muscle as all four of their cars ran in the top ten all day. William Byron started on the front row on the final restart but cut a tire and finished a dismal 22nd.
Speaking of restarts, they were a sight to see all day. Drivers going three, four and sometimes even five wide to make up as much ground as they could. Definitely something we could see more of with this package.
The winner of the last two races, Kyle Busch, 2019 Homestead, and Denny Hamlin, Daytona 500 were never factors after starting from the rear of the field. Outside of Truex Jr, the Toyotas mostly ran outside the top 15 all afternoon.
The drivers continue the west-coast swing as they head to Auto Club Speedway. Kyle Busch will look to break his early-season struggles at the track he scored his 200th career NASCAR win last season. The race is set for Sunday, March 1 at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
