News

Track:    Bristol Motor Speedway
Race:     Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300
Date:     April 16, 2016

No. 22 Fitzgerald Ford Mustang – Joey Logano

Start:  6th
Finish: 9th
Status: Running
Laps Completed:  200/200
Laps Led:  0
Owners’ Points Position (behind leader):  8^th (-52)

Recap:  Joey Logano struggled with a tight No. 22 Fitzgerald Ford Mustang on Saturday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway and came home ninth in the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at the high-banked, half-mile oval.  In the first of four Dash for Cash races in 2016, Logano qualified sixth, which put him starting third in the second of two 50-lap heat races that would determine the starting spots for the main event.  In his heat race, Logano jumped to second at the start, but an issue with the car popping out of gear dropped him back to third, where he would finish.  That lined Logano up sixth for the 200-lap feature event.  Early in the race, Logano was on the splitter hard, which made him tight and saw Logano fall to the 10^th position following the first pit stop.  A solid restart around lap 50 vaulted Logano back to sixth, where he would ride for the next 60 laps.  As the runs went on all afternoon long, the Fitzgerald Ford would get tight and cause Logano to lose a handful of spots.  With the shortened race, Logano and crew chief Brian Wilson gambled on a caution with 10 laps to go to bring the Mustang down pit road for slightly used tires.  Unfortunately, Logano got too tight over the final few laps and couldn’t gain any positions, settling for a ninth-place finish at the end.  Brad Keselowski will be back in the No. 22 next weekend at Richmond as the series runs another Dash For Cash event with heat races and a shortened main event.

Quote: "It was a frustrating day for sure for our Fitzgerald Ford.  I don’t feel like we ever had the handle that we should have had.  At times, I felt we were good enough to be a fifth-place car, but it would just get tight and we’d drop back to eighth or ninth.  That’s about where we ran all day long.  We just couldn’t get the handle like we wanted on it.  We thought maybe we’d be able to pick up a couple of spots there at the end of the race, but the car was still just too tight.  We have some work to do, but I know Brian and all the guys are working hard at making these things better.  I’ll be pumped to get back behind the wheel at Talladega and get the win I thought we should have had at Daytona."