Joey Logano kept his NASCAR championship dreams alive with a lucky break. He fulfilled them with a dominant run in the desert.

Logano led 107 of the 312 laps and held off a hard-charging Ryan Blaney down the stretch to win the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race and his third season title Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.

Logano added the 2024 championship to the ones he won in 2018 and 2022 to join an elite list of three-time champions. He’s the 10th driver to achieve the feat, and the only one who is still active.

Logano won the 36th race of his career, and for the fourth time this season. Three of those victories came in the 10-race playoffs.

“I love the playoffs. I love it, man. What a race! What a Team Penske battle there at the end,” Logano said. “Had a good restart and was able to get in front of the 12. And he had a lot of long run speed there, and it was all I had there to hold him off.”

JOEY LOGANO DOES IT! ❤️‍🔥 pic.twitter.com/k06vXoW8DZ

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) November 10, 2024

Logano’s championship run was over four weeks ago at the Charlotte Roval course. He was in ninth place in the standings at the end of that race, below the cutoff for the third round of NASCAR’s playoffs.

Alex Bowman was disqualified, however, for having a car that was underweight. Bowman was knocked out of the playoffs when his 18th-place finish was changed to 38th. Logano moved up one spot in the standings to advance, and then took full advantage of his new lease on life.

Logano won the following week at Las Vegas to clinch a spot in the Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix.

“Our team is better under pressure,” Logano said. “The race started in Vegas for us. The amount of work and effort that went into building this race car right here, the amount of time, I don’t think anyone works harder than us. We were up at 6 in the morning this morning going over stuff. The guys just want it bad and I’m glad we delivered.”

Logano took the lead with 53 laps to go and led the rest of the way in Sunday’s season-ending race while fellow championship contenders William Byron and Tyler Reddick faded and finished third and sixth, respectively.

Blaney did not make it easy, though. The 2023 Cup Series champion and the final member of the “Championship 4” chopped a four-second deficit with 30 laps to go down to less than half a second with about five remaining.

Blaney got close enough to attempt one or two passes, but couldn’t get past his Penske teammate and finished second.

Penske and Ford have won three consecutive Cup Series championships. Logano won in 2022 and Blaney won last year.

“At least a Penske car won it,” Blaney said. “They put together a great playoffs, and we’re happy. If we’re going to race somebody, I’m happy it was him for the championship, and happy to be 1-2 for Roger, three in a row for Roger, super amazing, and Ford.”