Joey Logano Advances After Denny Hamlin’s Transfer in Wild Final Lap at Charlotte

CONCORD, N.C. — Denny Hamlin as soon as once more discovered himself in the midst of controversy on the finish of the race on Sunday.

Besides this time, it was extra for what he didn’t do, reasonably than what he did do.

On the finish of the elimination race on the Charlotte Motor Speedway street course, Hamlin handed Ross Chastain on the ultimate lap, a go that put Joey Logano forward of Chastain for the ultimate spot within the NASCAR Cup Sequence semifinal spherical. 

Chastain tried to knock Hamlin out of the way in which within the last flip, leading to each spinning and coming throughout the end line backward. Logano handed each of them to solidify his spot within the subsequent spherical.

Ross Chastain (L) and Denny Hamlin discuss after the NASCAR Cup Sequence Financial institution of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte.

“Determined individuals do determined issues,” Logano mentioned. “The playoffs make you query your morals loads of occasions. It’s form of what are you prepared to do?

“It was his solely shot to go in there and attempt to transfer Denny out of the way in which.” 

Amid all of it, Hamlin was bewildered. He had no concept what was at stake. And given a alternative, he doubtless would have wished to maintain Chastain in and Logano from advancing, contemplating the latter is the defending three-time Cup champion.

Logano will doubtless run higher on the championship race at Phoenix in 4 weeks.

“I’d have made the perfect determination for me,” Hamlin mentioned. “That’s all I’d have mentioned [when asked]. On tempo, the 1 [of Chastain] is quicker than the 22 [of Logano]. However clearly, if it comes right down to the Remaining 4, the 22 might be going to have a leg up there.

A wild end at Charlotte helped Joey Logano (No. 22) advance to the following spherical of playoffs.

“I’m simply attempting to advance. I didn’t know if I used to be operating tenth or twenty fifth. Listening to the radio the entire time, there was simply crickets. No person mentioned something. No person informed me something.” 

Hamlin mentioned the one factor he tried to do was not wreck Chastain when passing him.

“I used to be simply attempting to not wreck the 1,” Hamlin mentioned. “He was fading and clearly strolling aggressively. However I didn’t wish to get into him or something like that. I didn’t need any elements of it.

“I want I had simply recognized what the last-lap state of affairs was. … I had completely no concept.”

Logano struggled all through the race and pitted thrice within the last stage, whereas Chastain solely pitted twice. Logano used the benefit of recent tires to go these on older tires, and Chastain misplaced a few spots within the last laps as he struggled on the older tires.

Chastain then tried a transfer that presumably would have been reviewed by NASCAR officers if it had labored to advance him to the playoffs. However a bump-and-run to advance a place is generally what the playoff elimination system — a system that presumably might be modified for subsequent 12 months to be a bit extra forgiving (and arguably extra honest) — is designed to create.

“My thought is I’m not taking something championship-wise away from the 11 [of Hamlin] and if I go him, he continues proper on,” Chastain mentioned. “So I don’t care if it’s kosher or not, I simply wish to go the 11. It’s actually so simple as that.

Ross Chastain’s playoff run got here to an finish at Charlotte.

“If it was for me and him, I’d have to consider that. I knew that it will not have an effect on the 11.”

Chastain felt his transfer was justified, as he wasn’t impacting whether or not Hamlin would have superior. Hamlin, Logano, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe and William Byron superior to the following spherical.

Chastain, Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick and Austin Cindric have been eradicated.

Whereas will probably be the final lap that made all of the highlights in a race gained by Shane van Gisbergen, Chastain can solely blame himself for not advancing. He misplaced 15 spots early within the race when he missed the activate pit street. He additionally misplaced a number of positions with a dashing penalty within the last stage. After which on the final lap, he slid the automobile in a flip for Hamlin to get near him.

“I single-handedly took a automobile out of the Spherical of Eight and an opportunity to go to the [championship] Spherical of 4,” Chastain mentioned. “In two months, we have elevated ourselves from an 18th-place automobile to an eighth-place automobile.

“We have been ok to run high 5. … It’s all on me.”

These errors saved Logano in it on a day when he struggled so badly that he needed to change gears. Initially, his staff was going to match Chastain’s pit technique after which realized they couldn’t.

“We simply attempt to be sensible,” Logano crew chief Paul Wolfe mentioned. “We’ve bought a variety of nice individuals engaged on technique. … As soon as we ran the numbers based mostly off our pace all through the day, it was [an easy decision].”

Ultimately, Chastain needed to watch Logano go him throughout the road, which gave Logano a five-point cushion (Logano owned the tiebreaker) for the ultimate spot.

“I knew [by then],” Chastain mentioned. “I watched him go by.”

Hamlin had no drawback with Chastain’s transfer on the finish.

“I simply was chopping alongside the final nook,” Hamlin mentioned. “To be sincere, my spotter did not even say he is closing in shortly. I simply bought spun and did not know what the hell was occurring.

“And so I do not know the way far he got here again from.”

And Logano? It was a traumatic day for him however he nonetheless has a shot on the title.

“The playoffs create drama,” Logano mentioned. “It creates storylines. It creates superior moments like that. I don’t perceive what individuals don’t like about it.

“I actually don’t get it. And should you’re a kind of people who say the common season doesn’t matter and playoff factors don’t matter, one level would have been the distinction there.”

And never simply the distinction on this race. It might make the distinction on who wins the title.

“We’re a harmful staff,” Logano mentioned. “Something can occur with us. We’re only a bunch of scrappers.”

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports activities. He has spent many years protecting motorsports, together with over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting Information, NASCAR Scene journal and The (Daytona Seaside) Information-Journal. Observe him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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