Logano Finishes 37th After Starting from Pole
September 16, 2013
THE RACE
Geico 400 at Chicagoland Speedway (1.5-mile oval, Joliet, Ill.)
Sunday, September 15, 2013
THE RESULTS
The No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion
Driven By Joey Logano
Start Position: 1
Finish Position: 37
Status: Engine
Current Driver's Points Position: 12
THE RACE REVIEW
· Joey Logano earned his second pole position of the season, as he qualified first for Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway. It marked Logano’s seventh career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole.
· Rain delayed the start of the event, which forced officials to call for a competition caution at lap 30.
· Logano led the first 32 laps of the event before the competition caution. While Logano and the Shell-Pennzoil team changed four tires on the stop, several other teams took just two tires and Logano returned to the track in the sixth position.
· The 23-year-old raced his way back into the top three with a car that was handling loose in the corners and coming out of the turns. Crew Chief Todd Gordon and the team kept making changes in order to improve the car’s performance and it showed on the speed charts.
· On lap 109, a heavy rain shower resulted in a nearly five-hour rain delay that forced the race to restart well into the night time.
· After restarting 10th following a round of pit stops, Logano again began to slowly claw his way towards the front.
· Logano was preparing to make a pass for seventh place on lap 146 when he radioed to the team that the motor was letting go. A quick caution allowed the team to bring the car down pit road to determine that the engine dropped a couple of cylinders.
· Logano returned to the track for a few more laps as he hoped to salvage as many points as possible but the engine eventually let go and the Shell-Pennzoil machine was credited with a 37th-place finish.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
JOEY LOGANO
YOU HAD A STRONG CAR BEFORE THE RAINS CAME. HOW WAS THE SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD?
“Yeah our Shell-Pennzoil Ford was really fast. We were third there and I think we were faster than our teammate Brad (Keselowski). I think we were as fast as the leader at that point, we just needed the track position. I really think we had the best car out there, especially before the rains came. It was all about track position out there. When you had track position, you were fast. If you got back in the dirty air, then you struggled a little bit. We were just biding out time there, especially once the rains came.”
WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE ENGINE?
“I really don’t know what happened. We will have to take it back to the shop and take a look. We dropped a couple of cylinders for sure. It really gave no indication that it was going to happen. It just went right there. We wanted to ride it out for as long as we could, but we knew it wasn’t going to last. That’s not the way we wanted to start the Chase. But we will fight back from that. We’ve done it a few times and we will do it again. We’ve still got nine races to go. The Championship is not out of our reach.”
Geico 400 at Chicagoland Speedway (1.5-mile oval, Joliet, Ill.)
Sunday, September 15, 2013
THE RESULTS
The No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion
Driven By Joey Logano
Start Position: 1
Finish Position: 37
Status: Engine
Current Driver's Points Position: 12
THE RACE REVIEW
· Joey Logano earned his second pole position of the season, as he qualified first for Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway. It marked Logano’s seventh career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole.
· Rain delayed the start of the event, which forced officials to call for a competition caution at lap 30.
· Logano led the first 32 laps of the event before the competition caution. While Logano and the Shell-Pennzoil team changed four tires on the stop, several other teams took just two tires and Logano returned to the track in the sixth position.
· The 23-year-old raced his way back into the top three with a car that was handling loose in the corners and coming out of the turns. Crew Chief Todd Gordon and the team kept making changes in order to improve the car’s performance and it showed on the speed charts.
· On lap 109, a heavy rain shower resulted in a nearly five-hour rain delay that forced the race to restart well into the night time.
· After restarting 10th following a round of pit stops, Logano again began to slowly claw his way towards the front.
· Logano was preparing to make a pass for seventh place on lap 146 when he radioed to the team that the motor was letting go. A quick caution allowed the team to bring the car down pit road to determine that the engine dropped a couple of cylinders.
· Logano returned to the track for a few more laps as he hoped to salvage as many points as possible but the engine eventually let go and the Shell-Pennzoil machine was credited with a 37th-place finish.
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
JOEY LOGANO
YOU HAD A STRONG CAR BEFORE THE RAINS CAME. HOW WAS THE SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD?
“Yeah our Shell-Pennzoil Ford was really fast. We were third there and I think we were faster than our teammate Brad (Keselowski). I think we were as fast as the leader at that point, we just needed the track position. I really think we had the best car out there, especially before the rains came. It was all about track position out there. When you had track position, you were fast. If you got back in the dirty air, then you struggled a little bit. We were just biding out time there, especially once the rains came.”
WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE ENGINE?
“I really don’t know what happened. We will have to take it back to the shop and take a look. We dropped a couple of cylinders for sure. It really gave no indication that it was going to happen. It just went right there. We wanted to ride it out for as long as we could, but we knew it wasn’t going to last. That’s not the way we wanted to start the Chase. But we will fight back from that. We’ve done it a few times and we will do it again. We’ve still got nine races to go. The Championship is not out of our reach.”