Joey Logano wins NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas

Joey Logano powered to the front late in Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and won the 400-miler, gathering an automatic berth in the championship race Nov. 6 at Phoenix.

Logano passed Ross Chastain, the leader, with three laps to go and led the rest of the way. He won by .817 of a second.

The year’s breakthrough driver, Chastain was fast over the final miles but couldn’t hold off Logano, who had fresher tires.

Chastain, who led a race-high 68 laps, pushed to the front in the race’s final stage and built leads up to two seconds as the final miles approached, but Logano gained on him steadily over the last 10 laps and made the winning pass with relative ease.

“Man, what a great car,” Logano said. “Penske cars were all fast. All of them were really fast today. Oh, man, all you want to do is get to the Championship Four when the season starts and race for a championship, and we’ve got the team to do it. I don’t see why we can’t win at this point.

“Racing Ross was fun. He was doing a good job air-blocking me, and I was just trying to be patient, and eventually, I was like, ‘I’ve got to go here.’ Just great to win out here in Vegas again, and it means so much getting to the championship.”

Logano thus becomes the first driver to fill one of the spots in the Championship Four. Three other drivers will earn the opportunity to race for the title in the next two weeks before the tour arrives at Phoenix Raceway the first weekend of November to decide the championship.

Chastain, Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin sit above the cutline after Sunday’s race. Below the cutline are William Byron, Chase Briscoe, Blaney and Christopher Bell.

Chastain had a one-second lead over second-place Blaney on lap 228 when Blaney lost control of