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AVONDALE, ARIZONA – OCTOBER 17: Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford, looks on during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Freeway Insurance 500 at Phoenix Raceway on October 17, 2026 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Joey Logano didn\u2019t leave Phoenix Raceway with the trophy Sunday, but he did accomplish something he hadn\u2019t pulled off in more than six years.<\/p>\n
The Team Penske driver swept both stages of the Freeway Insurance 500, marking just the third time in his NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> career that he\u2019s won the opening two stages of the same race.<\/p>\n The last time? August 2020 at Daytona International Speedway.<\/p>\n Joey Logano wins stage 1 & 2 at Phoenix<\/p>\n This is the third time Logano has swept the stages in his career and the first since Daytona in August 2020 <\/p>\n It\u2019s a rare accomplishment for the three-time Cup Series champion, who spent much of Sunday\u2019s 312-lap race looking like a legitimate threat to win before ultimately finishing sixth.<\/p>\n And although Tyler Reddick took the checkered flag<\/a>, Logano walked away with a valuable haul of championship points.<\/p>\n Joey Logano Sweeps NASCAR Stages for First Time Since 2020<\/p>\n Logano started second alongside Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney<\/a>, who led the opening 44 laps at Phoenix.<\/p>\n The first caution changed the complexion of the race.<\/p>\n After Michael McDowell and Riley Herbst collided<\/a> while battling for position, teams faced an early strategy decision on pit road. Several contenders opted for two tires, while Logano\u2019s No. 22 team went with four.<\/p>\n It paid off.<\/p>\n Logano worked his way past Denny Hamlin on Lap 51 and held on to win Stage 1.<\/p>\n The second stage brought another fight for the lead, this time involving Christopher Bell. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver built a sizable advantage before pit strategy helped bring Logano back into contention.<\/p>\n Logano ultimately captured Stage 2 as well, completing the sweep and collecting the maximum 20 stage points available.<\/p>\n According to NASCAR Insights<\/a>, it was only the third stage sweep of his Cup Series career and his first since Daytona in August 2020.<\/p>\n For a driver with three Cup championships, that\u2019s a surprisingly uncommon achievement.<\/p>\n Logano Falls Short of Phoenix Victory but Gains Valuable Chase Points<\/p>\n Winning both stages didn\u2019t guarantee Logano a trip to Victory Lane.<\/p>\n He led 84 laps Sunday, second only to Bell\u2019s race-high 85, but the final stage played out in Reddick\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n The 23XI Racing driver held off Blaney by 0.801 seconds to win, with Chase Elliott, Bell and Corey Heim completing the top five.<\/p>\n Logano crossed the line sixth.<\/p>\n Still, there was plenty for the No. 22 team to take away from Phoenix.<\/p>\n The stage sweep gave Logano 20 additional championship points before his finishing position was factored in, an especially important boost with the NASCAR Cup Series Chase entering its final three races.<\/p>\n Logano left Phoenix sixth in the standings<\/a>, 44 points behind championship leader Kyle Larson.<\/p>\n And while a sixth-place finish wasn\u2019t the result he wanted after leading so many laps, Sunday\u2019s performance was another reminder of how dangerous Logano can be when the championship is on the line.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t win the race. But for the first time in more than six years, he won everything NASCAR had to offer before the final stage<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMaggie MacKenzie<\/a> Maggie MacKenzie covers NASCAR for Heavy.com. She previously worked for NASCAR.com, where she reported, wrote, and edited race-weekend coverage and traveled to key events throughout the season. She has more than ten years of experience in sports media and is based in Boston, Massachusetts. More about Maggie MacKenzie<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty AVONDALE, ARIZONA – OCTOBER 17: Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford, looks on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-938700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}