The NASCAR Cup Series raced for the final time in 2024 on Sunday at the one-mile Phoenix Raceway. The four drivers of Joey Logano, William Byron, Tyler Reddick, and Ryan Blaney entered the weekend looking to score the series championship – two of which have yet to win their first.
Martin Truex Jr., retiring from full-time NASCAR Cup Series competition following Sunday’s event, scored the pole Saturday for the season finale. The New Jersey driver posted a time of 26.718s / 134.741 mph. Logano was the highest starting Playoff driver in second followed by Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, and Chase Elliott.
The field received the green flag just after 3:35 p.m. ET, with Truex quickly clearing Logano for the lead.
Ty Gibbs, piloting the No. 54 Toyota, scrubbed the wall with just a lap complete and pounded the wall not long after to draw the race’s first yellow. Gibbs took a moment before climbing from his car to walk toward the awaiting ambulance. After starting sixth, Gibbs finished 40th because of the crash.
The field returned to green flag racing with nine complete with Truex leading and Logano in tow.
Logano took the lead away from Truex the next time around.
Truex began running down the race leader with five laps left in stage one. Despite inching closer to the strong No. 22 Ford, Logano would win the opening stage with Truex, Christopher Bell, William Byron, and Chase Elliott running top five.
Pit stops began with Elliott winning the race off pit road. Bell, Byron, and Blaney followed the No. 9 Chevrolet off.
The field was set to return to green flag racing when the pace car hilariously hit the sand barrels at the pit entrance. It resulted in a five-minute and 47-second red flag period for clean-up. A new pace car was brought out and the field returned to green flag action with just 71 complete.
Elliott restarted as the leader before Bell took over the lead on the next lap. The driver of the 20 held the charge until Blaney entered the picture upfront with just over 10 laps left in stage two. With eight to go, Blaney took the lead from Bell to win stage two.
Bell, Logano, Byron, and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five in the second stage.
The lead shifted between Byron and Bell during the stage break – with Bell restarting as the leader.
Bell led the next 46 circuits until the leaders had to make what should be their final pit stops with 77 to go. Byron and the No. 24 team chose to use strategy and stay out hoping for a yellow. That caution never came as Byron pitted with just under 70 laps remaining.
Not long after, the caution flew for the No. 71 of Zane Smith in turn one with 54 to go. This created a decision for Byron and the leaders whether to stay out or pit. Byron chose to stay out while others chose to pit to assume the lead.
The field returned to green flag racing with 54 laps left in the season.
It did not take long for other drivers to reach Byron in a race for the lead – and championship – as Logano quickly moved up to challenge for the top spot. Logano pulled a three-wide move to take the lead from Byron with 53 to go.
Blaney, reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion entering the event, passed Byron and set sights on teammate Joey Logano with just over 20 laps to go. Will it be Blaney or will it be Logano?
Blaney, trying any and every line, inched closer and closer to race leader Logano in the closing laps – shrinking the lead down to just 0.953 seconds with just over 10 laps to go.
Despite having numerous looks at the lead, Logano held off teammate Ryan Blaney to clinch his third NASCAR Cup Series championship.
“I love the playoffs. I love it, man. What a race! What a Team Penske battle there at the end,” Logano said after the race on the battle between him and Penske teammate Ryan Blaney. “Had a good restart and was able to get in front of the 12. And he had a lot of long run speed there, and it was all I had there to hold him off.”
Blaney finished second after starting the day 12th. Playoff driver William Byron came home third while Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell rounded out the top five.
“Just worn out really and just couldn’t quite get there,” a visually worn-out Blaney said after the race. “And tried really hard to do so, just restart didn’t really work out and just got too far away from me and took me a while to pass a couple guys and just could never get by Joey. Yeah, ran out of time.”
“We just needed a little bit more. I felt like we gave it all we had, and that’s something to be proud of,” said Byron. “We just didn’t have enough to go fight with the Penske guys.”
Playoff driver Tyler Reddick finished sixth with teammate Bubba Wallace behind in seventh. Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher, and Daniel Suarez finished in the top 10.
“Got to be aggressive, and that was I feel like my best shot at trying to get ahead of the others. We fought hard all day,” said Reddick. “We didn’t make any big mistakes that took ourselves out of it. We fought really hard. A lot to be proud of, but obviously when you come here, you want to leave here a champion. We’ll work on it and think about what we can do in the off-season to get better here.”
The series will return on February 2nd for an exhibition event at Bowman Gray Stadium.
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