Knocked out of the playoffs this time last week, Joey Logano seized on his reversal of fortune to become the first driver locked into NASCAR’s championship finale.

Logano was below the cutline and eliminated from the eight-driver field when he left Charlotte Motor Speedway last Sunday. But when Alex Bowman’s car failed post-race inspection, Bowman was disqualified and Logano reinstated to the playoff field.

The only two-time Cup champion in the playoff field, Logano passed Daniel Suarez with five laps remaining Sunday for his fourth career victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It is the second win of the playoffs for Logano and the Team Penske driver makes a Ford the first one locked into the winner-take-all final four at Phoenix Raceway next month.

Logano had to hold off pole-sitter Christopher Bell, who led a race-high 156 laps, over the closing two laps. A late pit stop put Bell 30 seconds behind Suarez, and Bell was cruising in his Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing trying to run down Suarez when Logano got to Suarez first.

Bell didn’t have enough to catch Logano and finished 0.662 seconds back.

“We’re going to the championship four again!” Logano shouted on the frontstrech.

Suarez, who was eliminated from the playoffs last week, finished third in a Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing. William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports was fourth, followed by teammate Bowman and Gibbs driver Martin Truex Jr., who was eliminated from the playoffs in the first round in his final season of full-time NASCAR racing.

Gibbs driver Denny Hamlin was eighth in a massive recovery on an underwhelming day and only four playoff drivers finished in the top 10.

Kyle Larson, winner of two straight at Las Vegas as well as last week at Charlotte, came from two laps down to finish 11th. The remaining three playoff drivers had terrible days as reigning Cup champion Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and regular-season champion Tyler Reddick were all collected in the same early crash.

Formula One

Charles Leclerc earned Ferrari its first United States Grand Prix victory since 2018 with a clever start and a commanding drive, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen strengthened his lead in the F1 season championship by finishing third ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Verstappen earned the podium only after Norris was given a five-second penalty for leaving the track to pass Verstappen in the final laps at Austin, Texas.

Verstappen immediately complained about the move, while Norris insisted Verstappen also left the track. Norris’ pass came after the two drivers had battled for the final podium spot and critical championship points over several laps and Verstappen had stubbornly refused to give ground.

The penalty and fourth-place finish cost Norris valuable points in the title chase. Verstappen stretched his championship lead over Norris from 54 points to 57 with five grand prix and two sprint races left.

Leclerc earned his third win of the season and Ferrari pulled a 1-2 finish with his teammate Carlos Sainz in second. Kimi Raikkonen had been the last Ferrari winner at the Circuit of the Americas in 2018.

But the bigger battle was raging behind them as Verstappen and Norris fought over every inch of the final dozen laps.

Verstappen has not won a grand prix since June and Norris has steadily chipped away at his lead as the Red Bull car has faded. Yet Verstappen still stretched his lead by five points over the weekend by also winning Saturday’s sprint race.

Norris will leave Austin knowing he squandered a big chance to gain ground. He had even earned pole position for Sunday’s race.