NASCAR notes: Logano seeks 5th LVMS win, Xfinity race results

Joey Logano enters the Round of 8 in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs last in the point standings, 24 points below the cutline of the top four that would qualify for the Championship 4.

That points deficit could change in one race. Logano proved that in last year’s South Point 400.

Logano is the defending race winner at the fall playoff race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. That win launched Logano into last year’s Championship 4 and he went on to win the title.

He qualified ninth (29.421 seconds, 183.542 mph) Saturday for Sunday’s South Point 400. The green flag for the first race in the Round of 8, around Las Vegas’ 1½-mile D-shaped oval, is set to drop at 2:30 p.m.

There are plenty of similarities how Logano entered the Round of 8 last year to this year.

He made the round last year after Alex Bowman was disqualified following the postrace inspection at the Charlotte Roval and was dropped out of the top eight in the playoff standings and Logano moved up.

This year, Logano gained enough points in the race at the Roval to advance to the Round of 8 after Ross Chastain spun out on the last corner.

“I don’t care how we move on. I don’t really care how we win the championship,” Logano said. “I just want to win. I don’t care how we get there. I’ve always been that way. It’s about the big trophy at the end of the day. That’s all that matters.”

Logano is a three-time Cup Series champion and a four-time winner at the track. In 2022, Logano also won the South Point 400 and went on to win the championship three weeks later.

Those wins helped Logano’s team get a few extra weeks to prepare for the championship race at Phoenix.

“There’s something to do with the stress level as well,” Logano said. “You have a moment to take a deep breath and regain your thoughts. The playoffs are tough. These 10 weeks are hard. It’s a grind on everybody. That gives you a couple weeks where … you’re worried about one thing.”

With the success in the playoffs of Team Penske, who Logano drives for, and similar style tracks to Phoenix, many view Logano as a threat to win the championship.

“It’s only been that way because we’ve been that team,” Logano said. “It’s just the way we’ve been able to approach the playoffs and have a mentally tough team all the way through. They’re a bunch of resilient, tough people that just keep grinding. That’s how we do it.”

Almirola wins Xfinity race

It appeared Aric Almirola’s chances to win Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Focused Health 302 playoff race were over when he lost the lead with 58 laps to go. But it turns out there was still plenty of time for him to regain the lead.

Almirola, a part-time racer in the Xfinity Series, passed Connor Zilisch with 22 laps to go and held on to win the first race of the Round of 8 in the playoffs.

“It’s so much fun to be a part of this,” Almirola said in his postrace TV interview with CW Sports. “Thank you Coach (Joe Gibbs), such an awesome honor to go race for the owners championship with (Joe’s late son) J.D. Gibbs on the car. I’m having so much fun. This is the time of my life.”

While Almirola isn’t driving full time for the driver’s championship, the win locked the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota into the Championship 4 for the owners points title. Almirola won Stages 1 and 2, and led a race-high 107 laps after starting fourth.

Zilisch passed Jesse Love with 29 laps to go right before a late caution came out. After the restart, Zilisch passed Almirola for the lead with 22 laps to go, but Almirola chased down Zilisch and passed him with nine remaining and held on for the win.

“The frustration comes from how much this means to me,” Zilisch said to CW Sports. “A chance to lock into Phoenix, you got to take it. I gave it my all. I drove as hard as I could. I guess that’s all we had today.

Zilisch leaves Las Vegas leading the Xfinity Series points standings at 82 above the cutline with two races left in the Round of 8 — at Talladega and Martinsville. He led 34 laps Saturday.

Pole-sitter Justin Allgaier finished third for his 300th top-10 finish in his Xfinity Series career, and led 28 laps.

Late driver honored

The racing on the LVMS facility started Friday night at The Bullring, a 3/8-mile short track behind Turns 1 and 2 of the big 1½-mile track.

A handful of local racers participated in the event, including Spencer Gallagher, who honored former racer Spencer Clark with his paint scheme.

Gallagher’s Chevrolet had the same No. 23 design as the one Clark drove, when Clark raced at The Bullring. Clark was a rising NASCAR prospect, who raced with Kyle Busch at The Bullring, and was killed in a highway accident in 2006.

T.J. Clark, Spencer’s father, helped prepare Gallagher’s car. As did former Bullring track champion Jaron Giannini with the Spencer Clark Driven Foundation and other several companies.

Gallagher had issues in Friday’s ARCA Menards Series West race, finishing 16th, 11 laps down.

“It’s an honor to bring his number back home and to carry on the legacy he built here,” Gallagher in a news release. “Every lap I turn in that No. 23 car is for him — and for the Las Vegas racing community that remembers him so well.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.