Logano Wins Phoenix To Claim Third Cup Championship

Joey Logano celebrates his third NASCAR Cup Series championship Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. (HHP/Andrew Coppley photo)

AVONDALE, Ariz. – In the most dramatic title battle since the NASCAR Cup Series season finale moved to Phoenix Raceway in 2020, a determined drive by Joey Logano Sunday afternoon led him to victory and his third championship at stock car racing’s premier level.

Logano took the top spot on lap 260 and held on for dear life all the way to the checkered flag, reaching the finish line first by a narrow .330-of-a-second margin to become the 10th driver in the 76-year history of the Cup Series to boast three or more series titles.

He bested fellow Championship 4 drivers Ryan Blaney, William Byron, and Tyler Reddick in the last of 36 races, as the title decider was a winner-take-all affair for the 11th time in 12 years of the elimination era.

Sunday was also Logano’s 36th Cup Series triumph overall and fourth at Phoenix. His last two wins at the track – in 2022 and again Sunday – have led to Cup Series championships.

Though Logano wasn’t the best driver all year, he won when it mattered most en route to the crown, with three of his four triumphs on the season coming during the 10-race playoff run.

“I love the playoffs. I love it, man. What a race!” exclaimed Logano after climbing from his No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse on the frontstretch.

“Three of them [championships], that’s really special to get that. What a team we have here at Team Penske,” Logano added. “To fight through today, we went through a little bit of adversity throughout the race with a slow pit stop early … but we got everything right at the end. I can’t believe it, man.”

As the most dominant driver among the Championship 4, Logano led twice for 107 of 312 laps at the one-mile desert oval, but lacked a bit of long-run pace during the closing stages and had to fend off a furious charge from his Team Penske teammate Blaney in the final laps.

The move that defined his latest title, however, was a banzai run to the apron of the dogleg just after a restart with 54 to go, when he passed both Christopher Bell and then-leader Byron three wide to take over the race lead for good.

“It was looking iffy there for a minute, wasn’t it?” said Logano, who ran behind Blaney in the championship fight for the first half of the final stage. “That restart was really the difference-maker, though. Gosh, I’m so proud of this team. One-two for Team Penske; three championships in a row since this Next-Gen car [debuted] … couldn’t be prouder of everyone at the shop that’s built these things.”

Joey Logano in action Sunday at Phoenix Raceway en route to the NASCAR Cup Series championship. (HHP/David Graham photo)

Logano took the lead for the first time on lap 10 and won stage one, but it was Blaney who appeared to be in the cat bird’s seat later on after capturing the second stage and running best of the title quartet until the final sequence of green-flag pit stops kicked off with 77 to go.

In a two-lap window, Blaney, Logano, and Reddick all got their service completed, while Byron stayed on the racetrack at the direction of crew chief Rudy Fugle hoping to flip his track position in some form or fashion.

That wish came true on lap 250, when a cut right rear tire on Zane Smith’s Chevrolet sent the rookie spinning into the outside wall in turn one and generated the last of four yellow flags on the afternoon.

Byron had come down pit lane moments before, allowing him to stay out and assume the lead during the caution period while Blaney, Logano, and Reddick all pitted for fresh rubber to neutralize the tire advantage Byron had by running longer on the previous cycle.

That set up the race-defining restart on lap 259 and the championship-winning charge moments later, with Logano blasting from fifth to first in five corners and never trailing again after that.

He had to look in his rear-view mirror a couple of times, however, with Blaney closing from nearly four seconds back with 35 to go to get to Logano’s bumper with seven laps left.

At that point, it became a dance between teammates for all the marbles, with Blaney trying every lane on the racetrack in a futile effort to pass Logano for the championship.

Logano credited spotter Coleman Pressley, a former racer in his own right, as one of the chief reasons he was able to fend off Blaney’s superior long-run pace down the stretch.

“[Coleman] was telling me where [Blaney] was. He was up there telling me the best lanes to run,” the Middletown, Conn., native explained. “It was a balance of putting dirty air on his car and running the fastest laps for my Ford. We just got a little too tight there at the end and couldn’t really wrap the bottom as well as I wanted to … but it was enough to hang on.

“I’ve got the best team. I don’t know if I’m the best driver, but I’ve got the best team, and together we’re very well-rounded and can show up when it matters the most,” Logano continued. “We’ve got a mentally tough team that can make things happen when it matters, and we did that again this year.”

After dominating the middle of the race and heading the championship battle for nearly half the total laps, Blaney was forced to settle for a bittersweet runner-up, one spot short of becoming the first driver to successfully defend a Cup Series championship since Jimmie Johnson won five straight from 2006-’10.

It did, however, give Team Penske its first one-two finish in Cup Series points in the team’s long history.

Byron faded to five seconds back, finishing third in the race and the final points, followed on the road by Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bell, who led a race-high 143 laps.

Tyler Reddick, the fourth of the Championship 4 drivers, finished sixth to give the 23XI Racing team co-owned by Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan a fourth-place result in the season standings.

Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher, and Daniel Suarez made up the balance of the top 10.

In his final race as a full-time Cup Series driver, Martin Truex Jr. started from the pole, led the first nine circuits, and finished on the lead lap in 17th.

Logano will be honored for his NASCAR Cup Series championship on Friday, Nov. 22 during the NASCAR Awards at the Grand Ballroom inside the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Charlotte Convention Center.

The 2025 Cup Series season begins Sunday, Feb. 16 at Daytona (Fla.) Int’l Speedway with the 67th annual Daytona 500. Broadcast coverage will air on FOX, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.