News

THE RACE

Great Clips 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway
Saturday, August 30, 2014
 
THE RESULTS

The No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang
Driven by Joey Logano
Starting Position: 4
Finish Position: 2
Owners' Points Position: 1
 

THE RACE REVIEW

· Joey Logano and the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang team qualified fourth for Saturday night’s NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

· As the 195-lap event got underway, Logano worked his way into third and eventually second behind then race leader Chase Elliott.

· The No. 22 Discount Tire Ford was extremely loose in the race’s first stint and crew chief Jeremy Bullins called for a number of big changes, including track bar and air pressure adjustments.

· The car was better in the second run and Logano settled into second-place behind Kevin Harvick.  As the run went on, Logano said the car continued to return to the loose condition.

· The ill-handling Ford Mustang wasn’t getting any better and Logano dropped to third just past halfway.  Bullins once again made drastic changes to the No. 22 Team Penske machine and Logano once again worked his way back to second.

· For the remainder of the race, Logano would find himself running second and doing anything he could to run down a dominant Harvick.

· Despite a car that was running much better, Logano was only slowly reeling in Harvick over the race’s final 20 laps following the final pit stop of the night.

· As the checkers flew, Logano had cut a four-plus-second lead down to just .56-seconds, but had to settle for second place.

· With the second-place finish, Logano extended the No. 22 Discount Tire Mustang’s lead in the Nationwide Series Owners’ point standings to 26 over the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing car.
    

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING

JOEY LOGANO, NO. 22 DISCOUNT TIRE FORD MUSTANG

THE NUMBER 5 WAS THE CLASS OF THE FIELD TONIGHT.  DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING FOR HIM AT THE END OF THE NIGHT?

“Our Discount Tire Ford was a little bit off to start the race – just too loose – and just trying to keep the rear tires on it somewhat for the long run.  I felt like we were a second-place car even then.  We made some good adjustments and got closer.  We put some tape on the grille and lost it all again, and then we started to tighten it back up, but then the last run I finally had it tightened up to where I could hustle the car and drive it pretty hard.  I took off that last run and started to catch Kevin a little bit and then started to get too tight.  He started driving away a little bit and then last six or seven laps all of a sudden the light switch turned on and I started catching him.  I just ran out of time.  I wish there were five or seven more laps and I could have got to him and tried to do something with him.  We were catching him two or three tenths a lap there at the end and having some fun with it, but it was too little too late.  We’ll have to continue to battle tomorrow.”