News

THE RACE

Crown Royal Presents the John Wayne Walding 400 at the Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Sunday, July 27, 2014

THE RESULTS

The No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion
Driver:  Joey Logano
Starting Position:9
Finish Position: 5
Driver's Points Position: 9    
    

THE RACE REVIEW
    
The No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion driven by Joey Logano    

· Joey Logano qualified the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion in the ninth position for Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

· Much like in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series event, Logano made the first lap of the race count, passing three cars before settling into sixth place early in the race.

· A competition caution on lap 20 slowed the field.  As every lead lap car came in for their first pit stop of the day, Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil team stayed out on track, taking the lead on lap 22. The gamble paid off as Logano led the next 10 laps before visiting pit lane under the green flag for his first stop of the day.

· Logano fought through a condition that had the Shell-Pennzoil Ford handling tight in the middle of the corners and loose coming out of the turns.  With the high speeds at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the ill-handling condition was intensified behind other cars in “dirty air.”

· On a different pit strategy than most of the other cars, Logano used his time on fresher tires to try and build a gap on the rest of the field.  When pit stops cycled through, Logano was running in fourth place in the Shell-Pennzoil Ford.

· As the race continued, Logano remained on a different pit strategy than the rest of the field until a couple of late caution periods brought most of the leaders down pit road at the same time.

· Logano ran in the top 10 the rest of the afternoon, holding track position through the final pit stops.

· On the final restart of the day, Logano was able to pick up a position to sixth and passed another car for fifth place on the way to taking the checkered flag. The result marked Logano’s seventh top-five finish of the season.

· The fifth-place effort officially locked Logano into the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase for the Championship and he remained ninth in the overall driver standings.    

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING

JOEY LOGANO, NO. 22 SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD

BEFORE THE RACE YOU WEREN’T SURE WHAT YOU WOULD GET OUT OF THE CAR. DID YOU GET THE FINISH YOU DESERVED?

“We made progress with it all week.  We didn’t unload very well.  We kept trying to make up speed and (crew chief) Todd Gordon called a perfect race and got us the track position we needed to, but it’s just so hard to pass out there.  I think we finished where we deserved to finish. That’s about what we ran all day is where we finished.  I started the race thinking I was going to be a 15th-place car. The fastest car won the race today. It wasn’t a strategy thing or anything like that. I raced around him a few times and every time he had a run I was like, ‘Wow.’  We’re not even close to where they were at, so they deserve it.”