News

THE RACE

GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway (2.5-mile speedway, Pocono, Penn.)
Sunday, August 3, 2014

THE RESULTS

The No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion
Driver:  Joey Logano
Starting Position:2
Finish Position: 3
Driver's Points Position: 7
 

THE RACE REVIEW

· Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion team qualified second for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, the GoBowling.com 400. Logano just missed the pole by .008 of a second behind rookie Kyle Larson. The result marked Logano’s sixth front row start of 2014.

· At the green flag, Logano got a jump on Larson, the pole sitter, and took the lead going into the first turn.  Logano led for the first 30 laps of the race before the first round of pit stops.

· A number of pit strategies began to unfold after the first stops of the day. Logano came out of the pits 11th and worked his way up to second before the next round of pit stops.

· Logano’s Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion handled tight for most of the afternoon.  Track bar and air pressure adjustments got the car dialed in and Logano and crew chief Todd Gordon worked  on gaining track position for the majority of the race.

· During several rounds of green flag pit stops, Logano found himself coming into the pits in the second or third position, then come out and have to work his way back towards the front as the leaders in front of him pitted.  Each time the pit stops cycled through, Logano would find himself positioned in the top three.

· With less than 20 laps to go, a couple of caution flags placed most of the leaders on the same pit cycle, but still with various fuel strategies.

· Logano restarted the race in eighth place and made a furious charge towards the front, getting up to fifth in just two laps and into third with less than 10 laps to go.

· On the race’s final restart, Logano couldn’t get the jump on the first- and second-place cars that he needed and he had to settle for third as the checkered flags flew.

· With the finish, Logano jumped up two spots in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings and is ranked seventh overall, actually tied with Jimmie Johnson in points.  Logano is now positioned fifth in the Chase Grid standings.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING

JOEY LOGANO, NO. 22 SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD

IT LOOKED LIKE YOU GUYS WERE ABLE TO STAY ON THE RIGHT STRATEGY ALL DAY LONG AND GOT A GOOD FINISH OUT OF IT.

“Yeah, we sure did.  I felt we were on the right strategy and then that caution came out and quite a few cars pitted there. Then they pitted at the same time a few laps later as we did, but they were able to put two tires on or fuel only and gain a lot of track position that way. So we lost quite a bit when that change-up happened. We kind of got jumbled back a little bit and had to work our way back up through the field. (On) that last restart my plan was to push Kevin (Harvick) down into (turn) one and hopefully those two would be door-to-door inside of the race track and the seas would part for me, but (race winner) Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) just went quite a bit earlier than I thought he would and I didn’t have the full momentum behind Kevin.  I was almost sleeping a little bit there, so I’m kind of bummed out a little bit about that but, overall, our Shell-Pennzoil Ford was good.  I felt like it was about a third-place car. I felt like the 88 and the 24 (cars) were probably the two best and felt like Kevin and I were pretty close to being about the same. Overall, a decent day. The last few weeks we’ve finished where we deserve and not having the issues we had the previous four or five weeks before that, so we’re gaining momentum.”