• Joey Logano qualified the No. 22 AutoTrader.com Ford Fusion in the sixth position for Sunday’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
• The weekend didn’t start off well for Logano, the native of nearby Middletown, Conn. He was involved in an accident with his primary car just 13 laps into practice on Friday and the team had to go to the backup car before qualifying.
• As the race began, Logano slowly and steadily began working his way to the front of the field. By lap 20, the No. 22 Autotrader.com Ford was running in the second position.
• The Team Penske Ford Fusion handled extremely tight throughout the race, especially in “dirty air” when Logano was behind other cars. Despite the issues, Logano continued to run among the race leaders. He didn’t race outside of the top five until slipping back to sixth at lap 100.
• Crew Chief Todd Gordon made some big changes to the AutoTrader.com Ford and the adjustments helped as Logano told the team that the car was improved and he continued to run inside the top five.
• Logano took the lead for the first time after a round of pit stops when the Autotrader.com Ford took two left side tires and emerged from pit lane at the front of the field.
• Logano then settled into second place behind Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski and was turning solid laps.
• With 89 laps to go, while running a strong second, Logano was passing the lapped car of Morgan Shepard when Shepard lost control of his car and spun the AutoTrader.com Ford into the wall.
• The damage to Logano’s car was terminal and the 24-year-old driver had to retire from the event, scored in the 40th position.
• The disappointing finish dropped Logano three spots in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings. He is now in ninth place, 119 points behind leader Jeff Gordon.

IT LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE ON YOUR WAY TO A TOP-THREE FINISH. WHAT HAPPENED TO DERAIL THAT RESULT?

“I got taken out by the slowest car out there. You would think there would be some courtesy to the leaders. We were in second place. (Shepard) gets out of the way on the straightaway and then goes into the corner and slides right up into the lane I was in. We were doing a good job after having a left rear flat in practice and having to go to a backup car. We were out there running second. I can’t get too mad at ourselves over this…I feel like that should be stuff that shouldn’t happen at this level of racing. It’s just too bad because I feel like we were a second-place car. We were the second best. We didn’t have anything for Brad. But it would have been nice to get a 1-2 Team Penske finish. I feel like we have missed out on that three or four times this year.”