Joey Logano qualified 13th for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Logano missed making the final round in knockout qualifying by just .002 seconds.

As the race began, the No. 22 Pennzoil Platinum Ford Fusion proved to be extremely fast on starts and restarts. In the first three laps of the event, Logano raced his way from 13th to ninth. However, a tight-handling condition that would plague the No. 22 team all night long became a factor and Logano slipped back to 13th at the first competition caution flag, after just 25 laps.

Crew chief Todd Gordon called for big changes to the Ford Fusion over the first three pit stops as Logano continued to report that the car was running tight. Even with the changes, the Pennzoil Platinum Ford would be fast for 10 laps before losing momentum and falling back in the pack. Logano found himself running as far back as 23rd at one point.

Gordon was able to pinpoint a problem with the track bar and the team began making changes on subsequent pit stops to counteract the issue. As the team continued to make big chassis adjustments to the Pennzoil Platinum Ford, Logano was able to slowly work his way forward.

Over the next 150-plus laps, Logano ran inside or just outside the top 10.

Late in the event, the tight-handling condition returned and Logano once again dropped back to 16th.

On lap 330, with Logano running 14th, the final caution flag of the night waved and Gordon brought his driver down pit road for four tires. On the green-white-checkered flag restart, Logano was positioned as the first driver with four new tires and on the outside lane running in 12th place.

Over the final two laps, Logano used the fresh tires to his advantage, racing from 12th to fourth place in just two laps to collect his fifth-straight top-five finish to start the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup.

The result, his 15th top-five finish of the year, allowed Logano to retain the series points lead heading into the final race of the Contender Round of the Chase next weekend in Talladega.

UP UNTIL THE END OF THE RACE, THE BEST YOU HAD RUN ALL NIGHT LONG WAS EIGHTH. HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO GET SUCH A SOLID FINISH?

“We weren’t that good tonight. This Pennzoil Platinum Ford just didn’t have any speed. We were off in the beginning, but it was a great call by (crew chief) Todd Gordon at the end. He gave me four tires at the end and let me be aggressive. That’s what we have done all year long. The pit stop was great there at the end and we gained a couple spots and then got the outside lane and was able to let it rip. We picked up quite a few spots on that last restart and came home with a fourth-place finish after all of that. We’ll take that. The last couple of years I haven’t been very fast here, so I’ve got to figure that out. But we were able to take a pretty bad night tonight and get something out of it. That’s what this team is made of.”

DOES THIS TYPE OF PERFORMANCE SHOW THE CHAMPIONSHIP-LEVEL OF THIS TEAM?

“For sure. Obviously, this doesn’t do a whole bunch for us because we’re in the next round, but we still need to keep that momentum like we have been. It was definitely a hard-fought day for this whole Pennzoil team and they did a good job.”