News

THE RACE

O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge
Texas Motor Speedway
Saturday, November 1, 2014

THE RESULTS

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

THE RACE REVIEW

· Joey Logano earned his third pole of the 2014 season, qualifying first in the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang for Saturday’s 300-mile event at Texas Motor Speedway.  It was Logano’s 26th-career NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) pole.

· Logano jumped out to the early lead as the green flag flew, leading the first 33 laps of the event.  Logano fell back to second, but retook the lead again on lap 49 before the first round of pit stops.

· During his first stop, Logano overshot his stall coming into the pits, costing his team valuable time.  Logano had to back up the No. 22 Discount Tire Mustang before the team could go to work servicing the car.  The team lost six spots as a result of the miscue.

· It took Logano about 20 laps to race his way from sixth back up to second as he worked to chase down leader Kyle Busch

· For the remainder of the afternoon, Logano and the Discount Tire team would run either first or second place.

· Logano radioed in to crew chief Jeremy Bullins that when the car was good enough to get the lead, he would get loose on the exits, allowing Busch to repass for the top spot.

· The 24-year-old driver would lead five times for a total of 59 laps.

· Logano couldn’t catch Busch as the race wound to a close and would settle for a runner-up finish.  It was Logano’s third-straight second-place finish in the Nationwide Series.

· With the finish, the No. 22 Discount Tire team continues to hold the lead in the NNS Owners’ Championship point standings.  The team is up by 26 points with just two races remaining.
 

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING

JOEY LOGANO, NO. 22 DISCOUNT TIRE FORD

YOU LED LAPS AND RAN UP FRONT ALL DAY LONG.  IT JUST DIDN’T LOOK LIKE YOU HAD ENOUGH THERE AT THE END OF THE RACE.

“We had a pretty good Discount Tire Ford Mustang.  We were able to be pretty fast on the short run. I made a mistake and slipped through our box early in the race but was able to recover from that and get back up to the lead. Kyle (Busch) and I had a heck of a race, that is for sure. We were able to catch up to him and pass him but then after about 20 laps or so it was like a light switch, the car would just get loose and he would go by me and drive away. That is what ultimately beat us, having a long run like that at the end. He was able to get us by two or three seconds before the pit stop and then able to hold on to that the rest of the race. We just needed a caution or something to be able to have some fun at the end.  Overall we are still racing for the Owners’ points and we were able keep that lead.

YOU LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE HAVING FUN BATTLING WITH KYLE BACK AND FORTH?

“It was pretty fun. Kyle and I have raced great with each other since I started my career and we were teammates. It is kind of cool to still be able to race like we did before, race each other hard but clean, it is a lot of fun racing like that. I would rather beat him though.”