Joey Logano won the Hollywood Casino 400 from Kansas Speedway on Sunday afternoon to lock himself into the Championship Round of the NASCAR Playoffs.
Logano took the lead on the final restart, and he held off Kevin Harvick over the final 30-lap run.
Harvick had a faster car throughout the race, but Logano was able to block him over the final run to pick up his first victory since NASCAR returned from their COVID shutdown.
Logano said he was focused on his mirror throughout the final run to block any runs from Harvick.
“I thought if I could hold him off those first 15 laps, I’d have a chance,” Logano said. “Dirty air was best for us. When we caught lapped traffic, we were able to gap ourselves as he got more dirty air.”
Logano said the victory reminds him of 2018, when he locked himself in to the final round of the Playoffs early.
“It was on my mind every lap,” Logano said. “You come into this race knowing if you can win this thing you’ve got an amazing advantage. We’re going to Phoenix; we’re racing for a championship again.”
Harvick said he needed to beat Logano off pit road if he was going to win.
“It came down to controlling that restart there and we lost the lead,” Harvick said. “We weren’t the best behind somebody. Good run for us; wish we could have won but one short.”
Unofficial results:
- Joey Logano
- Kevin Harvick
- Alex Bowman
- Brad Keselowski
- Kyle Busch
- Chase Elliott
- Ryan Blaney
- William Byron
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Christopher Bell
- Austin Dillon
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Aric Almirola
- Cole Custer
- Denny Hamlin
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Bubba Wallace
- Michael McDowell
- Erik Jones
- Chris Buescher
- Ryan Newman
- Corey LaJoie
- Ty Dillon
- Tyler Reddick
- Clint Bowyer
- Daniel Suarez
- Brennan Poole
- Ryan Preece
- JJ Yeley
- Jimmie Johnson
- James Davison
- Quin Houff
- Timmy Hill
- Josh Bilicki
- Reed Sorenson
- Joey Gase
- Kurt Busch
- Chad Finchum
- Matt Kenseth
