The Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway (two-mile speedway, Brooklyn, Mich.) – NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion driven by Joey Logano

Sunday, June 16, 2013

• Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford qualified sixth for Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
• As the race began, Logano quickly moved inside the top five in the running order. It was a position that he would become familiar with as Logano ran among the top-five competitors for most of the race and only briefly fell out of the top 10 for a handful of laps during the 200-lap event.
• The Shell-Pennzoil Ford was fast and captured the race lead for the first time on lap on lap 26. Logano checked out from the field and led until a round of pit stops began on lap 42.
• Fighting a tight-handling condition when running alone and a loose condition when in traffic, crew chief Todd Gordon and the Shell-Pennzoil team were challenged while making adjustments to the car throughout the race.
• Tire strategy and management proved to be key on the newly-repaved MIS track as most teams took two tires on pit stops, while others took four.
• Late in the race, as the final round of stops were taking place, Logano took the lead once again and he was prepared to come to pit road as the caution flag was displayed.
• On the team’s final pit stop, Gordon elected to take four tires in order to get enough gas to make it to the finish while several other cars took just two tires. However, once back in traffic, Logano struggled to make up any ground on the track because of the loose-handling condition on the No. 22 car. Logano wound up finishing ninth on the afternoon.
• Logano led the race on three different occasions for a total of 21 laps. His 110.4 driver rating was the third best of all drivers in the 400-mile race.
• With his fifth-straight top-10 finish, Logano moved into a tie for 13th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings. He is now just 12 points outside of the top-10.

ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE FINISH OR FRUSTRATED AFTER LEADING A NUMBER OF LAPS?

“Of course I think everyone knows that this Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion was much better than ninth today. So yeah, in that sense it is always frustrating. However, that’s good when you can finish in the top 10 and still be frustrated with it. When you are getting to the point to where you finish up there and you expect more, that means you are hitting your stride. All-in-all, it was a really good day. We ran strong, we led laps and we proved we were a car to contend with this afternoon. Sure we would have liked to have finished in the top three, which is where I think we could have run, but I’ll take another top 10. It was a good points day for sure.”

WHAT ABOUT THE CALL AT THE END TO TAKE FOUR TIRES?

“I think it was the right call. I mean it is easy to second-guess yourself after it’s all said and done, but had we taken two tires, we might not have had enough gas to make it to the end like what happened to (Penske Racing teammate) Brad (Keselowski). So yeah, it was the right call. We knew getting back there would be tough and we just didn’t have the time to have it all work out. But (crew chief) Todd (Gordon) called a great race today. I’m proud of him and this entire Shell-Pennzoil team.”