VFW Sport Clips Help a Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway (1.366 -mile speedway, Darlington, SC)
No. 22 Snap-on Ford Mustang Driven by Joey Logano
Friday, April 11, 2014

• Joey Logano started 15th in the No. 22 Snap-on Ford Mustang after experiencing a tire problem in qualifying earlier in the afternoon. Logano got a flat tire in the second round of knockout qualifying, keeping him from going for the pole in the third and final round.
• Logano had a strong car early in the race despite being terribly loose. Logano raced his way from 15th to eighth in just 10 laps, settling in as the race played out.
• The Snap-on Mustang continued to be loose despite a number of big chassis changes by crew chief Jeremy Bullins. With solid stops on pit road, Logano found himself in the top five by lap 32 and in the top three by lap 65.
• After getting stuck on the bottom line during a couple of restarts, Logano slipped back to sixth while continuing to fight a loose racecar.
• On lap 100, Logano made a daring move for third when the two cars in front of him got together. Unfortunately, when diving to the bottom, the car in front of Logano checked up and Logano ran into the back of him, causing significant damage to the hood and the left front fender.
• With the damage, the Snap-on Ford became extremely tight. Coupled with the fact that Bullins had worked on tightening up Logano all night long, the car was a handful as the laps began to wind down.
• A late-race caution allowed Logano to come in, try and fix the damage and get fresh tires, setting up a green-white-checker ending.
• After restarting eighth, Logano was able to drive up to fifth over the final two laps, notching his second top-five finish of the year in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS).
• The No. 22 team continues to sit second in the NNS Owners’ Championship point standings, 17 points behind the No. 54 of Joe Gibbs Racing.

 

IT LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE COMING THROUGH THE FIELD BEFORE YOU GOT SOME DAMAGE. WHAT HAPPENED?

“I had a really fast Snap-on Ford Mustang tonight. It was a car that was probably capable of winning. On the restart, I got into the back of (Kevin) Harvick and knocked the nose in a little bit. Then the No. 9 (Chase Elliott) and Kyle Larson were racing each other and got loose in front of me and I ran into the back of Elliott. Once that happened, it split the nose from the hood and we lost a ton of downforce and handling went right down the drain. We put on tires at the end and hoped for the best and that’s all we could do. It’s a bummer. I felt like we had a fast car and just got our nose knocked in a bit. I’m proud of the team though. It wasn’t an easy day, from qualifying to the race. Just too bad we weren’t able to show how strong this Ford Mustang really was.”