For the second week in a row, a NASCAR Cup Series race ended with a stunning conclusion. It was not the battle for the win this time, as Shane van Gisbergen ran away with his fifth victory of the season and his first at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. But far behind him, Joey Logano and Ross Chastain’s battle for the last transfer spot in the playoffs came down to the last corner of the last lap.
Chastain took the white flag with a one-point advantage over Logano, but Denny Hamlin was closing in fast on the No. 1. All it took was one slip up by Chastain that allowed Hamlin to make the pass. With a tie in points going to Logano, Chastain made a desperate move in sight of the finish line by knocking Hamlin out of the way, only to spin himself out as well. Logano avoided the incident, finishing 20th to Chastain’s 21st, allowing Logano to take the transfer spot by four points.
However, the last lap altercation with Hamlin was not Chastain’s only error. After making a pit stop on lap 27, Chastain did not turn quickly enough at the sharp left-hand exit of pit road, causing the No. 1 to overshoot the corner. Although Chastain avoided any contact, the gaffe cost him all his track position, forcing him to drive through the field just to catch back up to the other playoff drivers.
Another costly mistake came on lap 87, when Chastain sped on pit road. This was a crucial moment late in the race when the No. 1 team made its final pit stop. At the time, Chastain was ahead of Logano by a handful of points, and he likely would have maintained that advantage if he did not have to return to the pits to serve the penalty. Instead, Chastain lost valuable time and points to Logano when he needed them most.
Chastain was very critical of himself in his post-race interview, saying that the mistakes that cost Trackhouse Racing its championship hopes fell on his shoulders. However, there is another component of the No. 1 team’s collapse for which Chastain was not responsible. On lap 99, crew chief Paul Wolfe called Logano to pit road to put a new set of tires on the No. 22. The thought was that Logano could advance through the field on fresh tires and make up the points that he was losing to the No. 1 while on equal tires. This was the call that set up the frantic final laps of the race, where Logano chipped away at Chastain’s point advantage until he had erased it completely, thereby forcing Chastain to make a desperate move to attempt a pass on Hamlin.
If Chastain is going to be criticized for his pit road errors, then crew chief Phil Surgen needs to take some heat for not bringing Chastain to the pits after Logano. Sure, the No. 1 team would have given up a lot of track position, but considering Chastain’s playoff situation, that was irrelevant. Nothing else should have mattered to Surgen and the No. 1 team than what Logano was doing. If Chastain had made another pit stop, he would have stayed on the same tire strategy as Logano, which would have negated the tire advantage. Chastain was faster than Logano on equal tires for the entire race, and the No. 1 team had spent the whole third stage mirroring the No. 22’s strategy. Why they stopped doing that is baffling, and it contributed to their elimination just as much as Chastain’s mistakes did.
Additionally, Hamlin played a significant role in knocking Chastain out of the playoffs. When Hamlin caught Chastain on the final lap, he could have sat behind the No. 1 and not made the pass, which would have eliminated Logano instead. From Hamlin’s perspective, would you not rather block Logano, who has won two of the last three titles and 37 races, from advancing instead of Chastain? That is not intended as a knock on Chastain, who has eliminated Hamlin from the playoffs before, but Logano and his team have become the best operation in the garage at finding ways to advance in the playoffs. Keeping Logano in the game instead of Chastain makes Hamlin’s road to a championship much more difficult.
Even more shocking was that Hamlin was apparently unaware of what the points situation was on the last lap. If it is true that Hamlin did not know what was at stake for Chastain and Logano, it was a terrible decision by the No. 11 team not to keep him informed. Regardless of whether Hamlin tried to pass Chastain, he should have at least been aware that Chastain might try something desperate on the last lap. Instead, Hamlin has effectively saved Logano’s championship hopes for the second week in a row. If Logano winds up beating Hamlin for the title, or knocks him out in the Round of 8, it will be a direct result of Hamlin’s actions at the ROVAL and Kansas Speedway.
As for Logano, Sunday’s race puts him squarely back in the championship conversation. He may be 24 points below the cut line, but the next three tracks are some of Logano’s best in the whole series. He has four wins and a 9.8 average finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He has finished in the top 10 at Martinsville Speedway for 12 consecutive races, and while Logano has not finished well at Talladega Superspeedway in recent years, he has three wins there and is always fast at the drafting tracks. Do not think for a second that he cannot win the championship.
As I wrote a few weeks ago, Team Penske must be considered the championship favorites if one of its drivers makes it to the final round of the playoffs. Chastain and Hamlin were positioned to ensure that Logano would not get there, but bad decisions by both drivers and their teams had a critical impact on the playoff field. Logano and his team made good decisions at the ROVAL, and they are now in a great position to make a title run. Hamlin still has a chance, but he will have to go forward knowing that he let a dangerous competitor back into the game, and while Chastain will take the loss hard, he is not the only Trackhouse employee responsible for the bitter end of the team’s title hopes.
Bryan began writing for Frontstretch in 2016. He has penned Up to Speed for the past eight years. A lifelong student of auto racing, Bryan is a published author and automotive historian. He is a native of Columbus, Ohio and currently resides in Southern Kentucky.