NASCAR playoff race at Vegas. Joey Logano has gas. Standings update.

Usually, when a race is determined by fuel mileage, many view it as a bummer.

One driver — Christopher Bell in this case — dominates from qualifying through most of the race, only to lose due to another driver’s ability to feather the throttle and nurse a tank of gas to the checkers. 

Fuel strategy has been part of racing ever since men traded horsebacks for cockpits. But a “fast winner” has always been sexier than a winner who uses fuel finesse. 

This time, however, the overriding storyline makes Joey Logano’s Las Vegas gamble so intriguing. A week earlier, his playoffs were over. But the Alex Bowman DQ moved Logano from ninth to eighth, and look what happened next.

Let’s go through the gears.

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First Gear: Making the most of a mulligan

Logano’s win in the Round of 8 opener secures his shot at a championship when the Phoenix finale arrives in three weeks. And if that sounds familiar, it should.

Logano has won two championships — in 2018 and 2022. Both times, he won the first race in the Round of 8 — at Martinsville in ’18 and Vegas in ’22.

Before Vegas, of the eight surviving playoff racers, Logano was at the bottom of the championship odds board, at +1200, with Kyle Larson the favorite at +350.