Yahoo Lifestyle Joey Logano beats Kevin Harvick at Kansas to clinch a chance at the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series title
Joey Logano will have a chance to win a second Cup Series title.
Logano led the final 44 laps of Sunday’s race at Kansas to beat Kevin Harvick to the checkered flag and secure his spot in the winner-take-all race for the championship at Phoenix on Nov. 8.
It sure looked like Harvick had a faster car than Logano over the final 30 laps of the race. But the high-downforce rules that NASCAR has implemented at intermediate tracks create a lot of dirty air. And that dirty air appeared to affect Harvick whenever he would get close to Logano’s car.
“Dirty air was the best for us,” Logano said after getting out of his car. The only variable that seemed to affect the battle between the two drivers was lapped traffic in the final laps. But Logano navigated it deftly and never gave Harvick an opening to get really close.
And whenever Harvick would get within a car length or so on the straightaway he would seemingly push Logano’s car forward rather than pull up further for a passing opportunity.
“Joey’s a good blocker,” Harvick said. Logano did a fantastic job of taking Harvick’s line away in the corners to deprive him of air that wasn’t turbulent.
Logano got the lead on the race’s final restart when he exited pit road first after taking two tires. Harvick, meanwhile, got four fresh tires on that stop.
Logano’s ability to hold Harvick off — and the manner in which he did — illustrated the conundrum NASCAR has created for itself with its rules at intermediate tracks like Kansas.
The high aerodynamic downforce and limited horsepower rules are designed to keep cars closer together. And that was on full display Sunday as temperatures were under 50 degrees. The cool temps kept cars closer together.
But those cool temps didn’t create more passing opportunities. With drivers on the throttle so much through the corners they were all running close to the same speed. Have you ever tried to pass someone on the highway while going just a mile or two per hour faster? Yeah, it takes a while.
The lack of off-throttle time meant that drivers had a hard time creating runs on each other through the corners. And as Harvick’s car illustrated at various points over the final stretch, a driver was basically blocked by a bubble of air when he did get to the rear bumper of a car ahead. It’s hard enough to pass a driver in NASCAR without having the air ahead of you fighting against you too.
Logano continues his even-year pattern
Logano won the 2018 Cup Series title in a bit of an upset. He missed out on the final round in 2019.
Now that he’s back in 2020, Logano continues an odd — or shall we say even — pattern. He’s only made the final round of the playoffs in even years. He was in the first elimination playoff final round in 2014 and then appeared in the final round again in 2016.
Did Kurt Busch’s title chances blow up?
Kurt Busch made the semifinals of the Cup Series playoffs by winning at Las Vegas in the second round. He finished 38th at Kansas after his engine blew up.
“I haven’t seen an engine problem in years,” Busch said. “No fault of anybody at Hendrick engines. We’re running hard here. We were running top-five and there’s a ton of RPM down the front-straightaway with the tail wind.”
Busch is now in a massive points deficit. He’s 73 points behind Brad Keselowski for the fourth spot in the title race and has to pass three other drivers to get to fourth. He probably needs to win at Texas or Martinsville to get to the title race.
Points standings
1. Joey Logano (won at Kansas)
2. Kevin Harvick, 4,115 points
3. Denny Hamlin, 4,094
4. Brad Keselowski, 4,082
5. Chase Elliott, 4,074
6. Martin Truex Jr., 4,051
7. Alex Bowman, 4,045
8. Kurt Busch, 4,009
Race results
1. Joey Logano
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Alex Bowman
4. Brad Keselowski
5. Kyle Busch
6. Chase Elliott
7. Ryan Blaney
8. William Byron
9. Martin Truex Jr.
10. Christopher Bell
11. Austin Dillon
12. Matt DiBenedetto
13. Aric Almirola
14. Cole Custer
15. Denny Hamlin
16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17. John Hunter Nemechek
18. Bubba Wallace
19. Michael McDowell
20. Erik Jones
21. Chris Buescher
22. Ryan Newman
23. Corey LaJoie
24. Ty Dillon
25. Tyler Reddick
26. Clint Bowyer
27. Daniel Suarez
28. Brennan Poole
29. Ryan Preece
30. JJ Yeley
31. Jimmie Johnson
32. James Davison
33. Quin Houff
34. Timmy Hill
35. Josh Bilicki
36. Reed Sorenson
37. Joey Gase
38. Kurt Busch
39. Chad Finchum
40. Matt Kenseth
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
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