NASCAR: Joey Logano is champ, Jimmie Johnson is back, Chase Elliott is mum; Phoenix rewind
In the end — as in the very end — there was little drama.
It was Joey Logano, largely unbothere, cruising to the checkers with Ryan Blaney a couple of car-lengths back. That’s practically a rout compared to some of this year’s finishes.
Joey led 60% of the 312 laps at Phoenix Raceway, including the last 30. In the wake of the previous week’s theatrics, this was truly a ho-hum ending to 2022, right?
No, not exactly.
Along the way through NASCAR’s Championship Weekend, there was very big news, very sad news, and two other champions crowned.
Let’s round it up . . .
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First Gear: Maybe Joey Logano should've been odds-on favorite
Joey Logano joins Kyle Busch as the only current drivers with multiple Cup Series championships. Each has two.
Christopher Bell entered the championship race coming off his second must-win victory in a month, and therefore became an obvious favorite among many handicappers.
Ross Chastain was coming off his daring wall-clinging dash at Martinsville and seemingly playing with house money — a true wild-card among the final four Cup hopefuls.
Chase Elliott, two years off his championship and winner of five 2022 races, was the odds-makers’ favorite but you have to assume some of that is based on his status as the “peoples’ choice.”
Looking back, we probably should’ve leaned more on Logano as the obvious favorite. By winning three weeks earlier to open the Round-of-8 playoff segment, he’d given his team two extra weeks to focus hard on Phoenix, where he’s had a solid record over the past four years.
In the end, Logano was the only championship contender who led a lap.
Bell was driving with a very heavy heart, Elliott either sabotaged his chances or got “Chastained,” depending on your view, and Ross The Boss was overmatched in the final green-flag run but finished a commendable third, behind Logano and Blaney.
Second Gear: Coy Gibbs tragedy hangs heavy over Sunday's race
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs, grandson of the coach, went to bed Saturday night as the newly crowned Xfinity Series champ.
Christopher Bell, driver of the Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota, awakened Sunday morning as one of four racers with a shot at the Cup title.
Between that sunset and sunrise came tragedy. Coy Gibbs, son of Joe, father of Ty, and vice-chairman of the race team, died overnight in his sleep. He was just 49. Brutal in so many ways — this tragedy comes three years after Joe Gibbs lost another son, J.D., to a neurological disease.
"You wake up this morning and you're racing for a championship,” an emotional Bell said after his 10th-place finish Sunday. “You're happy, you're elated, and then your world comes crashing down.”
Bell’s teammate Denny Hamlin went to social media Sunday morning to express an emotion long familiar to auto racing.
“Today we will do what we don't want to do, but we will unite as a family and race for the name on our chest,” he wrote.
Third Gear: Did Chase Elliott get 'Chastained'? He ain't sayin'
Along with the obvious extremes in post-race emotions — Logano’s jubilation, Bell’s sadness, Chastain’s overall pride for his breakout season — there was Chase Elliott’s unwillingness to address the contact that took away any shot he had at becoming a two-time champ.
Just after a Lap 200 restart, Chastain was trailing Elliott but got his nose below Elliott’s left-rear quarter-panel entering Turn 1. Next came racing’s age-old, chicken-or-egg question: Did Ross drift up into Chase’s wheel well, or did Chase come down into Ross’ right-front.
Ross has learned a thing or three about these incidents this year, and has fallen on his sword more than once upon crossing the line, but this time he put the blame squarely on the driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet.
“I got position on him to the left side in the dogleg, and he turned left,” said Ross.
Care to counter that position, Billy Clyde?
“I'm not sure," Chase began, "but looking forward to the offseason and really proud of our team for the fight we put in today."
Huh?
Subsequent attempts elicited similar responses, so it’ll just have to sit there and either simmer or die away.
Fourth Gear: Jimmie Johnson joins the King at Petty GMS Racing
As mentioned above, Ty Gibbs won Saturday’s Xfinity Series race and, with it, the championship.
Following the overnight tragedy, his job as Kurt Busch’s Cup Series replacement driver went to Daniel Hemric, who finished 17th.
The weekend’s wildest action came Friday night, when Zane Smith became the Truck Series champ when he outdueled Ben Rhodes and Chandler Smith in an eventful two-lap overtime.
The past week’s other big headline involved a gathering of 14 Cup Series championships. Jimmie Johnson, the seven-time champ, announced he’s returning to NASCAR as a part owner — and part-time driver — with Petty GMS Racing.
Petty GMS includes majority owner Maury Gallagher and team chairman Richard Petty, whose unmatched racing career also includes seven championships.
Watch this team, which took some forward strides this year with Erik Jones in the No. 43 car. Noah Gragson comes along next year to take over the team’s No. 42 car, while Jimmie’s part-time racing schedule, still in flux, will definitely include the Daytona 500.
Until then, we have three months when the sounds of internally combusted thunder is replaced by the clanking of wrenches and the clacking of sockets.
After some show-biz racing at the L.A. Coliseum, the haulers will point south and eventually, enter the Turn 1 tunnel at Daytona. Soon thereafter, the colorful machines will be pushed to the starting grid, pointed west toward Turn 1 and the beginning of NASCAR’s 75th season will commence.
Lord willin', see you there!
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR: Joey Logano wins, Jimmie Johnson returns, Chase Elliott quiet
