Lagano won the Vegas Cup with a late pass and enters the title race

Chastain took three laps on a 16-of-267-lap restart to take the lead but Lagana – among a group of cars that had a pit for new tires during the previous caution – was speeding through the field.

Logano finally caught up to Chastain with two laps to go and easily passed him to retake the lead and hold off by .817 seconds for the win.

With the win, Logano automatically advances to the Championship 4 in Phoenix and will compete for the 2022 series title regardless of how he finishes in the next two races — next weekend in Homestead, Florida and Oct. 30 in Martinsville, Virginia.

The driver who won the first race of the semifinal round of the playoffs has won the championship in three of the last four seasons.

“We’re fighting for the championship — let’s go,” Logano said after exiting his No. 22 Ford. “All the Penske cars were very fast today. All you want to do is get into the Championship 4 when the season starts and fight for the championship and we have the team to do that. I don’t understand why we can’t win at the moment.

“It’s looking really good for us, and man, we’ve been through a lot of adversity over the last 50 laps. I thought we were going to win and then we kind of fell out and then it was the tires and it was fun racing with Ross.

“He was doing a good job of shutting off my air and just trying to be patient and eventually I said, ‘I’ve got to go here.’ It’s just great to win again here in Vegas and it means so much to get to the championship.”

Kyle Bush finished third Chase Briscoe bounced from the circle down and took fourth place Denny Hamlin close the top five.

Completing the top 10 c Tyler Reddick, Martin Truex Jr, Eric Jones, AJ Allmendinger and Austin Dillon.

With two races remaining in the semi-final playoff round, the four drivers with the fewest points are in danger of relegation William ByronBriscoe, Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell.

Both Blaney and Bell crashed in Sunday’s race.

3 stage

During the break between stages 2 and 3, all the cars leading the lap pit, with Logan first. Ty Gibbs was penalized for speeding on pit road and had to restart from the back of the field. Daniel Suarez had to go to the pits twice to tighten the wheel.

When the race went back to green on lap 172, Logano was in the lead, followed by Hamlin, Blaney and Chastain.

JJ Ely exited Turn 4 and slid to the front on lap 194 to bring out the fifth caution of the race.

All the cars leading the circuit race, with Chastain taking the off-road course first. Logan had a slow stop as his team seemed to have trouble adding fuel.

Chastain was followed by Blaney, Byron and Kevin Harvick.

Austin Cindric hit the wall in Turn 2 on lap 207 and was forced to pit for repairs on his #2 Ford.

With 50 laps to go, Chastain was 1.2 seconds ahead Arik Almirola with Blaney in third place.

Running second, Blaney washed out in turns 1-2, hit the wall, then slid down the backstretch and hit the inside wall to bring out the caution.

All the leading cars lapped, with Haley first out of the pits thanks to a two-tyre call. After Busch’s stop, the left front wheel came off his No. 18 Toyota, which will likely lead to a four-week suspension for his crew chief.

On the restart on lap 233, Justin Haley followed by Chastain, Almirola and Byron.

Suarez exited Turn 4 and slid down the front on lap 240, bringing out the seventh caution of the race.

Several drivers pitted, but Haley stayed on the track and led the restart from 22 to go. He was followed by Briscoe, Reddick, Chastain and Harvick. Logano, the first non-pit road among pit road drivers, restarted 13th.

Immediately after Briscoe relieved Haley of the lead on the restart, NASCAR again brought out the caution when Landon Cassill crashed in turn 4.

Byron pitted for new tires during the caution. On the 252-lap restart, Briscoe led, followed by Haley, Chastain, Truex and Allmendinger.

Chastain tripled the field on the restart on the inside of Turn 3 and regained the lead as Briscoe dropped to second.

With two laps to go, Logan was caught by Chastain and made a neat pass to take the lead.

2 stage

Blaney held off teammate Logan by 1.5 seconds to take the win in an eventful Stage 2.

Suarez was third, Chastain fourth, and Hamlin, who took two new tires in the final pit stop, rounded out the top five.

During the break between stages 1 and 2, all cars leading the laps go into the pits Grandma Wallace the first one on the road with a pit.

On the lap 86 restart, Wallace was followed by Suarez, Logano and Truex.

Suarez took the lead on the restart as Chastain moved to second and Wallace dropped to third.

On lap 95, Kyle Larson ran into Wallace and slammed him into the wall. As Wallace was returning from the track, he crashed into Larson’s No. 5 Chevrolet, sending both cars out of the race.

After exiting the car, Wallace approached Larson’s wrecked car and the two engaged in a brief scuffle on the front end before being separated. Bell’s playoff driver was also totaled in an on-track incident.

All the leading cars on pit road with Hamlin the first off-road course. On the restart on lap 103, Hamlin passed Suarez and Logan.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr and Briscoe crashed on the front end on lap 104 to bring the race back under caution just after Suarez passed Hamlin for the lead.

On lap 108, the race returned to the green with Suarez leading the way, followed by Hamlin, Chastain and Logano.

Chastain quickly took the lead after the restart.

With 40 laps remaining in the stage, Blaney moved into second and Suarez dropped to third.

Blaney moved to the inside of Chastain in Turn 3 on lap 129 to grab the lead.

With 10 laps to go, Blaney was 1.9 seconds ahead of Logan, with Suarez back in third.

1 stage

Wallace claimed the Stage 1 victory over Logan under caution as Busch spun out of Turn 4 just before the 80-lap feature was completed.

Suarez was third, Bell fourth and Blaney rounded out the top five.

Reddick started from the pole position and raced side by side with Cindric for two laps before breaking away from the lead on lap 3.

With 50 laps to go in the first stage, Reddick held a small but steady lead over Cindric while Blaney moved up to third.

On lap 34, Cindric passed Reddick in turns 1-2 to take the lead as several cars entered pit road to begin the round of green flag pit stops.

Cindric pits on lap 40 and Keselowski overshot his pit stop during the pit stop.

After the stop cycle was completed on lap 42, Suarez took the lead, followed by Wallace and Logano.

On lap 57 in Turn 4, Wallace drove to the inside of Suarez to take the lead for the first time in the race.

Logano ran into Suarez on lap 63 to take second behind Wallace.

With 10 laps to go, Wallace maintained a narrow lead over Logan to put playoff driver Briscoe one lap down.

On lap 78, Busch spun out of Turn 4 and slid onto the grass that stretched ahead to bring out the first caution of the race. Briscoe received a free pass and returned to the lead lap.