Date: 10-16-2022.

Name of the race: South Point 400.

Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Laps: 267.

Poor winner: Tyler Reddick.

Outside pole: Austin Cindric.

Stage 1 winner: Bubba Wallace. 

Stage 2 winner: Ryan Blaney. 

Stage 3 winner (won the race): Joey Logano. 

Top 5: Joey Logano, Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch, Chase Briscoe, and Denny Hamlin. 

FYI: Baby, let’s roll the dice! Las Vegas is known for its flashy lights, casinos, eloped weddings, and the NASCAR race track. Since the start of the new Chase format back in 2014, Vegas has always been sort of a wildcard race because you never know who will win until the checkered flag waves on the last lap. The track is also known for notorious fights like Joey Logano vs. Kyle Busch in the year 2017 that took place on pit road after Joey spun Kyle during the race's closing laps. This year’s race had an uneventful stage one that non-playoff driver Bubba Wallace won, but once stage two began, things got dicey. The incident heard around the world happened during the second stage between Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson; the two were fighting for position towards the front of the field, but on lap ninety-four Larson’s car got loose, causing him to move up the track and accidentally run into Wallace. The forty-five vehicle bounced off the wall, and then he deliberately drove into the five car, causing them both to spin and collecting playoff driver Christopher Bell. You think the action stopped there, but it was just getting started. Wallace and Larson’s cars finally came to a stop. Everyone saw him running toward the five car with anger written all over his face before safety officials arrived on the scene, which is against a rule that NASCAR has, which is if you get into a crash, you have to wait for officials to come over to you. They will take you to the ambulance to get evaluated at the infield care center. Once Bubba arrived at Larson, he started repeatedly shoving him and appeared to be yelling at him, all while Larson was trying to talk to him calmly and not fight violence with violence. Ryan Blaney won stage two and looked like the driver to beat and could potentially be the first driver to punch his ticket to Phoenix and race for a championship. Sadly that dream came crashing down when he hit the wall late in the race, causing him to lose a big chunk of points. The rest of the race was uneventful until the exciting battle with playoff drivers Joey Logano and Ross Chastain during the closing laps, where you did not know who would win until the end, which made it exciting for the fans. In the end, Joey Logano walked away with the victory and advanced to the final round of the playoffs and will race for a second championship. We all know the famous saying, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” but will this emotion between Wallace and Larson carry over to the next race? Will one of them be suspended? Will another playoff driver join Joey in the championship four?  We will have to wait and see when we hit the sandy beaches of Homestead Miami Speedway. 

Next race: Homestead Miami Speedway on Sunday afternoon for the second race in the third round of the playoffs.