News

THE RACE

Ford EcoBoost 400
Homestead-Miami Speedway
Sunday, November 16, 2014

THE RESULTS

The No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion
Driver:  Joey Logano
Starting Position: 9
Finish Position: 16
Driver's Points Position:4  

THE RACE REVIEW

· Joey Logano qualified ninth for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series finale Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Logano was one of four drivers that began the Ford EcoBoost 400 with a chance to capture the 2014 Sprint Cup Series championship.

· Early in the race, Logano showed that the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford was going to be a car to contend for the title as he raced his way into the top five by lap 17. On lap 38, Logano showed the speed of the No. 22 Ford as he made a daring pass to get by two other championship contenders – the No. 4 and No. 11 cars – and take over the second position. Logano then set sail to track down race leader Jeff Gordon.

· For the next 150 laps, Logano was a fixture inside the top five, despite fighting a tight-handling condition. Crew chief Todd Gordon made several big adjustments to the car over the course of the race, but nothing seemed to help free up the handling of the Shell-Pennzoil Ford to where Logano needed it to be.

· On lap 181, Logano brushed the wall while running second.  The resulting damage tightened the car up even more and the 24-year-old driver slipped back to fifth place.  On the ensuing pit stop, the Shell-Pennzoil team took some extra time to pull out the fenders, as they got Logano back out on the track in the 10th position.

· Despite the damage, Logano raced his way back up to fourth before another round of pit stops on lap 222. A couple of dropped lug nuts resulted in a slow stop as Logano emerged in 11th.  Once again, despite the issues, Logano raced his way back to sixth.

· Trouble once again befell the team with just under 20 laps to go when a slow pit stop, the result of the car falling off the jack while changing the tires, dropped him down to 29th in the running order. Despite the issues, Logano used fresh tires and a couple more cautions flags to battle his way back to 16th by the time the checkered flags flew.

· The result completed an amazing season for Logano as he posted five wins (including two in the Chase), 16 top-five and 22 top-10 finishes.  Logano finished fourth in the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings.

 
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING

JOEY LOGANO, NO. 22 SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD

THAT WAS NOT THE ENDING TO THE YEAR YOU WANTED.  HOW WOULD YOU CLASSIFY YOUR RACE?

“This has been an awesome season for the whole 22 bunch. We were up there with a lot of top fives and a lot of wins. Coming into today we knew what we had to do, we just didn’t execute –from every angle it seems like. I got the wall early in the race and lost the shape in the car and lost a little track position for that. We were able to recover toward the end of the race to where we were all in line and then we came down pit road and I just had a mistake on pit road and we went all the way to the tail end of the lead lap there. We were trying to fight back with 15 to go but unfortunately a great season like that makes the overall finish fourth because of one mistake, but that is what the rules are. We understand that. This team did a great job of consistently being fast. In previous years that would have been perfect. Coming into this race and the way the points go, it doesn’t pay anymore. We just didn’t execute perfectly tonight and for that reason we will finish fourth. We still feel like we did a lot better than fourth this season.”