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NASCAR XFINITY Series Race Report

Track:  Watkins Glen International

Race:   Zippo 200 at The Glen

Date:   August 8, 2015

No. 12 Snap-on Ford Mustang – Joey Logano

Start:  1st (30^th-career NASCAR XFINITY Series pole)

Finish: 1st (25^th-career NASCAR XFINITY Series win)

Status: Running

Laps Completed: 82/82

Laps Led: 39

Points Position:  --

Recap: Joey Logano and the No. 12 Snap-on Tools Ford Mustang started on the pole and led laps early, but succumbed to a pit-road penalty before driving through the field to win Saturday’s Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International, the 25^th-win of Logano’s NASCAR XFINITY Series career and his fourth of the season.  Logano earned the pole in qualifying, giving him four poles this season and 30 for his career.  Logano is now tired with series great Mark Martin for second on the all-time list of pole winners in NXS competition.  Logano jumped to the lead early and had a torrid battle with teammate Brad Keselowski.  The two swapped the lead until Logano came to pit road on lap 20.  Unfortunately, a pit road penalty forced Logano to have to start at the tail of the longest line on an ensuing restart in the 27^th position.  Logano began a steady and strong charge back to the front, showing the speed of his Snap-on Mustang and racing his way into the top-three in just 25 laps and eventually passing Keselowski once again for the lead on lap 49.  Logano would head down pit road for the final time on lap 51, giving the top spot back to his teammate.  Once green-flag stops cycled out, Logano built a commanding eight-second lead on the field.  A slew of late-race restarts brought Keselowski back to Logano’s rear bumper, but the 25-year-old was able to pull away, hold the lead and eventually earn his first-career NASCAR National Series road course victory.  Logano led 39 laps on the afternoon.  Between the two Team Penske Mustangs, Logano and Keselowski led 79 of the race’s 82 laps.  The win was Logano’s fourth victory in just eight starts in 2015 and the 25^th of his career.  The win also marked the 100^th win for Roush-Yates engine in NASCAR XFINITY Series competition.

Quote: ““It’s pretty special to win this race.  As a driver you always want to have a road course win on your resume.  I’ve yet to have one on the Cup side, but it’s nice to have one on the XFINITY side now.  We’ve come close to winning this race a few times, but had never been able to make it happen.  I had a really good Snap-on Ford.  It just goes to show how good Team Penske is and the depth they’ve got from within when they can throw together a second XFINITY car like that and make two cars as equal as those two were out there today, and the two fastest cars is something to be very proud of .  This team was led by Kevin Buskirk and a lot of the guys that have been on the road before and they come back out and were having fun.  It was a fun weekend for us and to go out there and put it on the pole, lead a lot of laps and win the race is very special for sure.  We’ve been close to winning a lot lately and it feels really good.  I know for Todd it feels really good too because we’ve been close here the last few weeks in both the Cup Series and the XFINITY Series, so it feels nice to be able to spray some champagne and have some fun in victory lane.”

No. 22 Hertz Ford Mustang – Brad Keselowski

Start:  2nd

Finish: 2nd

Status: Running

Laps Completed: 82/82

Laps Led: 40

Owners’ Points Position:  1st (+81 points)

Recap: Brad Keselowski and the No. 22 Hertz Ford Mustang started second, led 40 laps and finished second in the Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International on Saturday afternoon. Keselowski qualified second to complete a Team Penske front row for the Saturday afternoon NASCAR XFINITY Series race. At the start of the 82-lap event, the No. 22 Ford Mustang held station in second place behind teammate Joey Logano.  At lap five, Keselowski used a lap car to take the lead for the first of four times. The race took a dramatic turn for the veteran driver when he was judged too fast leaving pit lane after his second stop at lap 52. The penalty dropped him back to 15^th-place with just 27 laps to go. He made a spirited charge through the field got to second place by lap 65. Over the closing laps of the race, Keselowski kept pace with Logano but could not find the speed to catch and pass him his teammate. He held on to second to complete a Team Penske one-two finish. The second-place finish is the seventh runner-up finish for the No. 22 team though the first 20 races of the season. The solid effort also extends the No. 22 Hertz Ford team’s lead in the owners’ standings to 81 points over the No. 33 of Richard Childress Racing.

Quote: “It was kind of an up-and-down day. Joey was really, really fast and we knew that. He had a little bit of trouble himself on pit road and drove through the field so quickly that he was running lap times I think three or four tenths faster than I was when we were leading and it was just all I could do to really keep up with him there at the end. But I fought through some issues there.  I made a mistake on pit road and I finally figured something out and just over-figured it out, but I’m excited about that for tomorrow, but all-in-all I think I was probably a tad bit slower than Joey was and made a few too many mistakes, but mistakes are part of these XFINITY races, at least for us because we’re pushing, trying to grow and be better race car drivers, better race teams and that’s not easy to do.  You’ve got to really hang it out to do that and I probably hung it out a little too far there and cost ourselves probably a better opportunity to win.  I’m not sure I would have been able to beat Joey, but I was just digging real hard and learning and growing and trying to be better and probably pushed a little too hard to be able to beat Joey.  He did a great job as well and I think all-in-all it was just a really good race.”