NASCAR at Las Vegas: Joey Logano wins, Kyle Larson doesn’t. Updated standings. Homestead next

Usually, when a race is determined by fuel mileage, many view it as a bummer.

One driver — Christopher Bell in this case — dominates from qualifying through most of the race, only to lose due to another driver’s ability to feather the throttle and nurse a tank of gas to the checkers.

Fuel strategy has been part of racing ever since men traded horsebacks for cockpits. But a “fast winner” has always been sexier than a winner who uses fuel finesse.

This time, however, the overriding storyline makes Joey Logano’s Las Vegas gamble so intriguing. A week earlier, his playoffs were over. But the Alex Bowman DQ moved Logano from ninth to eighth, and look what happened next.

Let’s go through the gears.

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First Gear: Making the most of a mulligan

Logano’s win in the Round of 8 opener secures his shot at a championship when the Phoenix finale arrives in three weeks. And if that sounds familiar, it should.

Logano has won two championships — in 2018 and 2022. Both times, he won the first race in the Round of 8 — at Martinsville in ’18 and Vegas in ’22.

Before Vegas, of the eight surviving playoff racers, Logano was at the bottom of the championship odds board, at +1200, with Kyle Larson the favorite at +350.

A day after Logano’s win, Larson was still atop the championship odds pylon, at +260, but Logano is now second at +300. And that makes sense, of course, since he’s the only driver guaranteed a shot at Phoenix.

Second Gear: Bell is bummed

Since a crash at Michigan in mid-August, Christopher Bell has been haulin’ the mail, as some would say. On rails, as others, including Bell, might suggest.

Not just eight top-10s in the nine races since Michigan, but most of those finishes comfortably in that top 10: Six of them were top-5s, with back-to-back runner-up finishes the past two weeks.

Sunday’s second-place seemed to hurt more, considering how he won the Vegas pole and then led most of the laps — 155 of 267. Rarely is a driver so sincerely bummed as Bell was during his post-race TV hit.

“I don’t know, and I don’t think I’ve come to terms with it yet. Just a bummer, everyone on this team did everything perfect today. This thing was obviously on rails, the pit crew did an amazing job.

“We did everything we needed … and unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be today.”

We’ll explain his bummed attitude a little later here.

Third Gear: Kyle Larson’s weird trend continues

The strange habit of post-victory Kyle Larson continued at Las Vegas.

After his fifth win of the season, last month at Bristol, some of us noticed how much Larson struggles the week after a victory. Then he did it again.

And then he won again last week at Charlotte, running his win total to six this year. And yep, he struggled yet again in the wake of that win.

An 11th-place finish at Vegas was better than most of his previous post-win finishes this year: 14th, 34th, 34th, 7th, 26th. But it was hard-earned, due to a pit miscue that forced him to quickly return for a fix on the left-rear. Could’ve been better, but could’ve been even worse.

I’ll say it again. If Kyle is locked into the Phoenix championship race and has a chance to win Martinsville the Sunday before, he might want to burp the throttle and take the runner-up. Sounds silly, but the trend is strong, and by the way, it’s not relegated to this year.

Last year, three of Kyle’s four wins were followed by finishes of 33rd, 34th and 35th. Yikes.

Fourth Gear: Homestead will be busy

NASCAR’s three biggest touring divisions will all be turning laps next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Cup and Xfinity Series will continue their Round of 8 playoff segment, while the Truck Series returns after two weeks off.

Trucks and Xfinity race Saturday at Homestead, the Cup Series on Sunday.

In fact, all three series will be together for each of the final three NASCAR weekends of 2024. Martinsville and Phoenix follow Homestead.

Let’s close with the updated Cup playoff standings: 1. Joey Logano (Round of 8 winner), 2. Christopher Bell (+42 over the cutline), 3. Kyle Larson (+35), 4. William Byron (+27), 5. Denny Hamlin (-27), 6. Tyler Reddick (-30), 7. Ryan Blaney (-47), 8. Chase Elliott (-53).

Bell looks safe there in second place with that 42-point cushion. But he’s up just seven points on Larson and 15 on Byron, and he knows if the next two races are won by drivers in that bottom four above, the fourth championship spot comes down to points and he could end up really bemoaning the missed shot at Vegas.

That explains his Sunday blues.

— Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR playoff race at Vegas. Joey Logano has gas. Standings update.