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THE RACE

Sylvania 300
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Sunday, September 21,  2014
 
THE RESULTS

The No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion
Driver:  Joey Logano
Starting Position: 7
Finish Position: 1
Driver's Points Position: 2
 

THE RACE REVIEW

· Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion team qualified seventh for Sunday’s Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (NHMS).

· As the race began, Logano told his team that the car took off slow and he began to drop several positions. After 20 laps, however, the Shell-Pennzoil Ford began to come to life and he was able to work his way up to sixth place before the competition caution flag flew on lap 35.

· After a two-tire stop during the first caution, Logano came off of pit lane in third place and he was able to work his way up to second, a position that he held from lap 95 through two more pit stop cycles.

·  On lap 171, the Shell-Pennzoil crew came through with a great pit stop and got Logano out and into the race lead.  He held the top spot until the next pit stop on lap 211 when he came in first and left pit lane with the lead.

· A total of 15 caution flags provided ample opportunities to make up or lose ground on race restarts. Logano slipped back to the sixth position around lap 245.

· On lap 246, with the Shell-Pennzoil Ford not able to make it to the finish on fuel, crew chief Todd Gordon called Logano in for four tires and fuel.  One of the few competitors that took four tires on their last stop, Logano found himself 16th on the ensuing restart with just 50 laps to go.

· Not to be denied, Logano was able to make his four fresh tires work to his advantage as he raced three-wide on the outside at the green flag.  The move allowed the native of Middletown, Conn., to race from 16th all the way to sixth in just 10 laps.

· With a number of late-race restarts – and fresher tires and more fuel than all of the cars in front of him –  Logano methodically picked off the remaining cars in the top five one by one.

· On lap 274 while running third, Logano was able to work his way past teammate Brad Keselowski and race leader Kevin Harvick to grab the lead. He never trailed again as he won by 1.150 seconds in a green-white-checkered flag overtime finish.

· The victory was Logano’s seventh career win, the fourth of the 2014 season and his second at his “home” track in New Hampshire – his first coming in 2009. The 24-year-old driver has now earned 12 top-five and 17 top-10 finishes through the first 28 races of the year.

· The win was also the third straight and fourth in the last five races for Team Penske. Logano won at Bristol and Keselowski was victorious at Richmond and Chicagoland.

· Logano led three times for a total of 73 laps on Sunday.

· With the victory, Logano moved up to second in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase standings, just one point behind Keselowski. He is now also guaranteed a spot in the Contender Round of 12 drivers in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

 
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING

JOEY LOGANO, NO. 22 SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD

IT WAS A BIG CALL FROM TODD GORDON TO TAKE FOUR TIRES ON THE LAST STOP.  DID YOU THINK THAT WAS THE RIGHT CALL AT THAT POINT?

“No, I thought we gave it away at that point, but four tires were good and we had some good restarts and were able to get ourselves back up there. We’ve got to get to the next round to win the championship.  That’s our ultimate goal is to win the championship and we had to get through this day the best we could and had some really good restarts.  Before I knew it I was sitting third and was like, ‘Huh, I’ve got a shot at winning this thing.’  I’ve got 30-lap newer tires than anybody and we were able to capitalize with that, and then of course it was caution after caution after caution and that was making me nervous for sure.  I don’t know if Todd and Walt (Czarnecki) were, but I know I was and we were able to capitalize and have some good restarts and be here in Victory Lane. I’ve got to thank all the boys at Team Penske. We’re doing what we’ve got to do to win this thing right now – both teams are – and I’m proud of that. This is my home track so it means so much to me.”

YOU DIDN’T SEEM LIKE YOU WERE SURE ABOUT THE CAR TO START THE WEEKEND.

“A lot went into this one, that’s for sure.  I’ll just take you back to when we unloaded. We were OK and then yesterday in practice we were so-so.  I didn’t feel like we were great and towards the end of practice we made a couple changes and found some speed. We started seventh today and were able to work our way up a little bit in the beginning of the race. I felt like, ‘OK, ‘we’ve got something to contend for a victory with,’ if everything worked out right.”

THIS IS YOUR FOURTH WIN OF THE YEAR.  CAN YOU EVEN DESCRIBE WHAT THAT MEANS TO YOU?

“To me, this is almost like Daytona. It’s such a special place for me. I watched my first Cup race here when I was five and started my first one and won my first one. After the week I had in Connecticut doing some really cool fundraisers, to top it off with a victory is really neat.”