Joey Logano Wins the FanShield 500 with Dominant Second Half Performance

Joey Logano takes the FanShield 500 Checkered Flag at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, March 8, 2020
Joey Logano celebrates on the frontstretch after winning the NASCAR Cup Series FanShield 500 at Phoenix Raceway Photo – Chris Graythen/Getty Images

The FanShield 500 at Phoenix Raceway wrapped up the three-weekend west coast swing. This track gave the NASCAR Cup Series drivers a new test. Tight corners on a one-mile circuit are the opposite of what they were racing in the previous three weeks. With this, they also had a new short-track package to race. Smaller spoilers with a smaller splitter took downforce away from teams. With these adjustments, the excitement built up into a great afternoon of racing.

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Joey Logano Gets Second 2020 Win in Overtime at Phoenix

Joey Logano earns second victory of the year in overtime at Phoenix on Sunday, March 8, 2020
AVONDALE, ARIZONA – MARCH 08: Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series FanShield 500 at Phoenix Raceway on March 08, 2020, in Avondale, Arizona. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Joey Logano expected a bump from Kevin Harvick in the two-lap overtime Sunday at Phoenix Raceway, but the bump never came.

Instead, Harvick pulled up beside Logano in the center of turns one and two on the final lap of the FanShield 500, but Logano sped away with a hard charge off turn two and cruised to the finish line with a margin of 0.276 seconds.

With the victory—his second at Phoenix and the 25th of his career—Logano is the first multiple-time winner of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, having previously taken the checkered flag at Las Vegas in the year’s second event.

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Team Penske is Finding Early Success in 2020

Team Penske driver, Ryan Blaney at Auto Club Speedway February 28, 2020.
FONTANA, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 28: Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 BodyArmor Ford, prepares for practice laps at Auto Club Speedway on February 28, 2020, in Fontana, California. Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – For the third consecutive week, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney looked to be THE driver to deal with for a NASCAR Cup Series checkered flag. And while tough luck circumstances resulted in another ‘near miss’ rather than Victory Lane celebration – his work has still been stellar enough to propel him into driver standings lead for the first time in his five-year career.

The 26-year-old holds that top position in the championship for the second straight week as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Phoenix Raceway for Sunday’s FanShield 500 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

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Winners and Losers from Las Vegas

Race number two for the NASCAR Cup Series is in the books, and winner number two of the season has been crowned, with Joey Logano emerging victorious over Matt DiBenedetto, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Austin Dillon at Las Vegas. The 1.5-mile track provided many moments of exciting racing, interesting race strategies (that eventually paid off), and some four, five, even six-wide racing. There were some clear winners and losers from this weekend’s race, and here are some of those headliners.

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Power Ranking after Las Vegas

The NASCAR season is now officially, officially, underway. Obviously, Daytona started the season, but the second race is circled on every team’s calendar as a ‘test’ race of sorts, where car performance can first be seen without the help of a 200+ mile per hour draft. Joey Logano picked up the victory in the Pennzoil 400, and the top-ten was full of unexpected success stories. That led to some large shakeups in this week’s power rankings, but a driver who hasn’t yet won now leads the pack.

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