Logano comes into the weekend as the defending race winner

MOVING ON UP: With just one week to go until the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase begins, Joey Logano was able to move up one position in the Chase Grid standings following his 14th-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday night. That means that based on his current position in the point standings (fourth) and his three wins this season, Logano would be the third-seeded driver when NASCAR’s “playoffs” begin at Chicagoland Speedway next weekend.

DEFENDING WINNER: Logano comes into the weekend at Richmond International Raceway as the defending race winner. The last time the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series visited the .75-mile track in April, Logano took the lead late after a furious four-car battle between he, teammate Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon. It was Logano’s first career win at Richmond and his second of the season.

A JACK OF ALL… TRACKS: With his win at Bristol Motor Speedway just two weeks ago, his sixth-career Sprint Cup Series victory, Logano has now earned a win at six different sized tracks. Logano has won at the .75-mile Richmond, one-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway, 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway, two-mile Michigan International Speedway, 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway and the .533-mile Bristol track.

CONTINUED STATISTICAL SUCCESS: Despite his first finish outside of the top 10 since New Hampshire, Logano continued to be a threat up front at Atlanta and the Shell-Pennzoil Ford has continued to prove to be one of the fastest cars week-in and week-out. Logano now leads the series in average mid-race running position, average finish, laps in the top five and quality passes. His driver rating is the second-best in the series behind point leader Jeff Gordon and he ranks fourth in total laps led.

THE HOMETOWN SHOWDOWN: Logano will head back to his home state of Connecticut next month to race for a cause at his foundation’s inaugural Hometown Showdown Driven by AutoTrader.com. The friendly go-karting competition is set for Thursday, September 18 from 3:30-9:00 p.m. ET at On Track Karting in Wallingford, Conn. The night will provide an opportunity for fans to test their racing skills against Logano and other participants in a fun competition. In addition to the on-track racing, the event will host a variety of activities, such as a silent auction, a raffle and plenty of opportunities to interact with Logano.

WITH JUST ONE RACE REMAINING BEFORE THE CHASE, DO YOU FEEL THAT THE TEAM IS WHERE YOU NEED IT TO BE?

“I think so. I think you go back and look at our performance over the last month or so, we have been among the top three or four teams in the garage and that is where we want to be. Some people will look at the results from last weekend and think we lost a little something, but we ran in the top five all night long. I think we had a shot to win the race if we didn’t have a small problem in the pits and then get wrecked late in the race by a slow car on two tires, we easily would have finished in the top three and that’s what our team knows. We have been on it the last few weeks and that is what you want going into the Chase. You want to have everything clicking and I think the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford team is clicking right now.”

YOU ARE COMING INTO THE WEEKEND HAVING WON THE RICHMOND RACE EARLIER THIS YEAR. CAN YOU WIN BACK-TO-BACK AT RICHMOND?

“I still can’t believe that I won at Richmond. That was one of those tracks that I’ve just struggled at most of the time during my career. I was able to run well at the first race last year, but in the fall race we just missed it. So to go out there and run as fast as we did that day and then run away with it at the end was fun. That was probably one of the best battles I’ve ever had for the lead of a race as well. It was just a great race and a great weekend. Now I know what I want and what I need at Richmond. That’s a pretty cool feeling to have and something to look forward to going into the weekend.”