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Welcome to the Championship 4, Joey Logano.
The veteran driver clinched his spot Sunday, winning the South Point 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway after holding off Ross Chastain.
Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.
Chase Elliott, who came into the day atop the playoff standings, finished 21st. Here's where the rest of the playoff contenders not previously mentioned finished on Sunday:
Chastain, Elliott and Hamlin are currently in position to qualify for the Championship 4, though much could change over the next two races.
Bell's day ended in tough fashion, as he was collateral damage in a mid-race spat between Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace—who won the first stage—that led to a crash, ended the day for all three drivers and led to a bit of a shoving match off the track:
Bell told reporters he and his team "got the short end of the stick" in the altercation between Larson and Wallace.
"It's disappointing because our performance is capable of racing for the championship, and it doesn't appear that we're going to get to," he added, as he now sits in eighth place in the playoff standings.
Blaney, meanwhile, was in second place Sunday and had already won the second stage when he lost control of his vehicle and hit the wall.
There was no such gaffe for Logano, however, who methodically tracked down Chastain over the final 10 laps and outmaneuvered him for the win. It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Logano would find himself in contention—it's just what he does.
The second of three Round of 8 races will take place next Sunday at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, with the Dixie Vodka 400 set to begin at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
In a stunning turn of events, Chase Elliott has been declared the winner of Sunday's M&M's Fan Appreciation 400 after Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were disqualified following failed post-race inspections.
It marks Elliott's fourth win of the season, including third in his past five races. With the latest result, he has not finished below second in any of the past five races.
After the disqualifications, Tyler Reddick was elevated into second place, while Daniel Suarez was moved up to third.
NASCAR managing director Brad Moran explained the reasoning for disqualifying Hamlin and Busch, saying it came down to the same equipment violation for both cars.
Here's a look at the top 10 finishers from the race plus a recap of the action.
M&M's Fan Appreciation 400 Results
1. Chase Elliott
2. Tyler Reddick
3. Daniel Suarez
4. Christopher Bell
5. Kyle Larson
6. Michael McDowell
7. Martin Truex Jr.
8. Bubba Wallace
9. Erik Jones
10. Austin Dillion
Full leaderboard available at NASCAR.com
The race track at Pocono was not kind to the drivers. The caution flag came out early and often as multiple cars had trouble handling the sleek track and tight turns.
Austin Cindric, Aric Almirola and Hamlin each had some early adversity.
After Kyle Larson won Stage 1 under caution, Busch asserted his Pocono dominance and took the win in Stage 2.
The final stage opened with Busch trying to hold off a hard-charging Ross Chastain for the front of the pack. Ryan Blaney's hopes for clinching a playoff spot this week came to an end when he blew a back left tire.
But Busch relinquished the lead when he chose to pit with 37 laps to go. Chastain stayed out and managed to leapfrog him by pitting a lap later.
Hamlin then passed Busch for second place, but he was heard on his radio indicating he did not get enough fuel during his pitstop. However, he was able to get some time back when a caution was brought out with 23 laps to go after Blaney spun out on Turn 3 and took a huge hit into the wall.
The green flag was waved with 18 laps to go, and Hamlin and Chastain immediately went at each other for the lead. Hamlin took the inside position and refused to give Chastain any room, which led to the No. 1 car running into the wall on the first turn and brought out another caution.
After the restart, Hamlin emerged as the leader with Busch on his tail. Elliott and Tyler Reddick battled for third place. The cautions allowed Hamlin to put his fuel concerns out of his mind and focus on the finish.
Hamlin managed to pull away and hold off Busch for the unofficial victory. But in the end, it was Elliott who walked away with the win.
Hamlin officially finished 35th, with Busch following one spot behind at 36th.
The 2022 season has been one of the best runs of Elliott's career. With the playoffs on the horizon, the 2020 Cup Series champion looks to be the favorite to earn his second title.
There are still two playoff spots remaining as the drivers shift their attention to next Sunday's Verizon 200 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race will begin at 2:30 p.m. ET.
The 2022 NASCAR All-Star Race brings together the best drivers on the circuit in a format that will challenge everyone over the course of 125 laps.
Incentives are attached to each of the first three stages of Sunday's exhibition race at Texas Motor Speedway.
The winners of the first three 25-lap stages will start in the first three positions on the grid for the final 50-lap sprint for the race title.
The shortness of the stages combined with the toughness of passing at Texas makes being at the front of the field a must from Lap 1.
Kyle Larson has won two of the last three All-Star Races. He captured the first checkered flag at Texas in 2021. The event was previously held at Charlotte from 1987-2019 and Bristol in 2020.
The All-Star race participants qualified by either winning a race in the last season or taking first in the Cup Series or the All-Star race.
Four additional drivers will be added to the field through the All-Star Open. The three stage winners and the first-place finisher in a fan vote advance to the All-Star Race.
NASCAR All-Star Race Info
Date: Sunday, May 22
Start Time: 8 p.m. ET
TV: FS1
Live Stream: FoxSports.com and Fox Sports app
Entry List
Ross Chastain
Austin Cindric
Kevin Harvick
Kyle Larson
Brad Keselowski
Chase Elliott
Aric Almirola
Denny Hamlin
Ryan Blaney
Chase Briscoe
A.J. Allmendinger
Martin Truex Jr.
Christopher Bell
Joey Logano
Bubba Wallace
William Byron
Michael McDowell
Kurt Busch
Alex Bowman
Preview
The starting grid for the All-Star Race will be determined by a qualifying session on Sunday.
All of the drivers in the field will take part in single-car, one-lap qualifying drives around Texas Motor Speedway.
The top eight participants from that round of qualifying enter an intense fight for the pole position.
The eight drivers will be placed into an elimination bracket in which the winner starts first on the grid for the All-Star Race.
The head-to-head battles in the final part of qualifying feature a four-tire pit stop and a race down pit road with no speed limit.
Whichever drivers are the fastest around the circuit in that format advance to the next round, and the winner of the elimination bracket takes pole.
The losers in the first round of the elimination bracket will be lined up from fifth to eighth, while the two second-round losers will be third and fourth on the grid.
Then the drivers have to take on a 125-lap gauntlet around Texas Motor Speedway that is split up into four stages.
Stages 1, 2 and 3 will be 25 laps, and the winners of each stage will start first, second and third on the grid for the final stage.
There is one stipulation added to that. The Stage 1 and 2 winners must finish inside the top 15 in each following stage to confirm their spot at the front for Stage 4.
That should be a fairly simple task for the stage winners since there are only 24 cars in the field compared to a normal points race that has over 35 participants.
The fourth starter on the grid for Stage 4 will be the driver whose team completed the fastest pit stop following Stage 2. That driver also has the 15th or better stipulation attached to him.
If any of the stage winners fail to reach those criteria, they will start where they left pit road after Stage 3 and no replacements will be named to the front of the grid.
The All-Star Race comes with plenty of rules to keep track of, but the format is designed to produce excitement for each of the 125 laps.
The format could be confusing at times, but if it delivers throughout the 125-lap race, it could be a sign for the future of the All-Star Race.
There was a scary scene near the end of Stage 1 in Sunday's Daytona 500.
As Chris Estrada of NBC Sports noted, Brad Keselowski pushed Harrison Burton and ended up sending the NASCAR Cup Series rookie into William Byron and Kyle Busch. Burton went airborne and went upside down in the multicar pileup:
Three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin was eliminated from the race as part of the crash. So was Burton, Byron and Ross Chastain.
Burton spoke with Jamie Little after the wreck and said, "It's hard for me to tell what happened."
He also added, "Frustrating deal, obviously. Just wanted to get stage points there, try to be smart about it, and just got turned around there."
Martin Truex Jr. was in first place when Stage 1 ended under caution.
Joey Logano held off Kyle Busch to win the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum on Sunday.
Despite the small nature of the track, Busch was unable to gain much ground on Logano during the race's final stages.
The No. 22 car finished with a 0.877-second cushion on the runner-up. Austin Dillon was a relatively distant third, crossing the finish line 3.225 seconds after the winner.
Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum Leaderboard
Full standings available at NASCAR.com
Busch will feel disappointed with the result. He was the most dominant driver overall before losing the lead right before a caution with 34 laps left. The two-time series champion also shot himself in the foot as he attempted a move for first place.
The track's dimensions made this one of the more unique races in recent years. Space was in short supply on the quarter-mile oval, and aggression was a necessity in order to maintain a given position in the field.
Somewhat surprisingly, the first caution didn't come until the 53rd lap as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got turned around after some contact by Harrison Burton.
It was an eventful caution period as Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and race leader Tyler Reddick were all forced to bow out because of mechanical issues. The Clash wasn't a great advertisement for NASCAR's new Next Gen cars.
Teams will likely have to experience some trial and error as they adjust to the new builds, which will inevitably lead to the kind of issues Hamlin, Briscoe and Reddick experienced Sunday.
Ryan Blaney was also forced to make an early exit after contact from Erik Jones sent him into the wall with 35 laps left. Blaney proceeded to take his frustrations out by throwing his HANS device toward the No. 43 car.
Blaney vented his frustration mid-race:
With the Clash concluded, all eyes turn to Daytona International Speedway. The Daytona Duels get underway on Feb. 17 ahead of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20. Beyond what's at stake, drivers might be looking forward to a return to normalcy in the Great American Race.
An improbable victor last year, Michael McDowell will be a long shot to repeat as champion.
For Kyle Larson, the Daytona 500 is an opportunity to get his NASCAR Cup Series championship defense off to a strong start.
