Last weekend's win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway locked Joey Logano into the Championship 4. It also helped his crew chief, Paul Wolfe, reach an important milestone.
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The win marked Wolfe's 41st trip to victory lane in the Cup Series. He is now the active wins leader among crew chiefs after breaking his tie with 2014 champion Rodney Childers. 2020 champion Alan Gustafson is third among active crew chiefs with 39 Cup wins.
The interesting part about this 41st win is that it continued a trend for Logano and Wolfe. They used strategy to take the lead late while the dominant driver, Christopher Bell, had to settle for second after leading 155 laps.
"When there's an opportunity like that at the end of the race, where there's a long run, you're able to make good mileage, that's one of our strengths that we have with the Ford, so there's an opportunity there to run it long," Logano said after winning at Las Vegas.
"When you put that together with Paul Wolfe, an incredible crew chief — we call him Big Ball Paul now — he really makes that happen there."
Wolfe started his crew chief career in the Xfinity Series. He spent 150 races atop the pit box and celebrated seven wins. Six of these wins were with Brad Keselowski in 2010 as they celebrated the Xfinity championship.
Wolfe moved up to Cup in 2011 with Keselowski and celebrated immediate success. The duo won three races together in 2011 before finishing fifth in the championship standings. One season later, they won five races and the Cup championship.
Wolfe remained Keselowski's crew chief through the end of the 2019 season. His run with the No. 2 team ended after 29 wins, one championship, and six playoff appearances in the elimination era.
The veteran crew chief joined forces with Logano and continued the run of success. The No. 22 team celebrated three wins in 2020 and then reached the Championship 4. They ended the season third in the standings.
Wolfe and Logano have remained together ever since. They have celebrated 12 total Cup wins and the 2022 championship. This season marks their third time reaching the Championship 4 together and the second time locking up multiple wins in the playoffs after an average regular season.
"There's been many years where by the stats it doesn't look too good, but we've been able to capitalize when it matters," Logano said. "The Playoffs, we just turn the wick up. I don't know what exactly that is, but it just happens."
