A RECORD START TO THE CHASE: Despite the fact that Joey Logano struggled with the handling of the No. 22 car last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the 24-year-old was able to race his way back with a strong final restart on fresh tires to grab a fourth-place finish in the Shell-Pennzoil Ford. Logano has now finished in the top five in the first five Chase events, the first time in the 11-year history of the Chase for the Sprint Cup that a driver has finished in the top-five in the first five races. Currently leading the series championship standings, Logano has already secured a spot in the Eliminator Round of the Chase thanks to the team’s victory at Kansas.
MORE AND MORE TESTING: This week, Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford team, along with teammate Brad Keselowski and the No. 2 team, will test at Martinsville Speedway in preparation for the upcoming Chase event at Martinsville.
SEE LOGANO RACE IN MIAMI WITH AUTOTRADER.COM: Starting Monday, October 13, followers of AutoTrader.com on Twitter (@AutoTrader_com) have a chance to win a trip to Homestead-Miami Speedway to attend the Sprint Cup Series Championship race. The entry process will be simple – followers will tweet to win using the hashtag #Chase22ToMiamiSweeps. A winner will be selected at random on Tuesday, October 28, and will be presented with a prize pack for two including airfare, two-night’s stay in a Miami hotel, all-inclusive track experience on race day and a few potential surprises along the way.
FEAST OR FAMINE: Logano’s career numbers at Talladega Superspeedway started out strong as he earned four top-10 finishes in his first five races at the track. Since then, however, Logano has fallen victim to “the big one” several times, with a best finish of just 16th in his last six starts. Logano does own a NASCAR Nationwide Series win at Talladega in 2012.
Last Raced: Daytona 1 (finished 11th)
Last Raced: Daytona 2 backup
Track: Talladega Superspeedway
Race Start Time: 2:00 pm ET
| RADIO | Live on MRN and SIRIUS XM Channel 90 | |
| TV SCHEDULE | Friday | |
| 2:30 pm ET, Practice (FS1) 4:30 pm ET, Final Practice (FS1) |
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| Saturday | ||
| 4:30 pm ET, Qualifying (ESPNEWS) |
JUST HOW MUCH OF A RELIEF IS IT TO BE RACING AT TALLADEGA KNOWING YOU ARE ALREADY LOCKED INTO THE NEXT ROUND?
“I think everyone would like to be in the position that we are in and that Kevin (Harvick) is in and know that you don’t really have anything to worry about here other than going for the win. That was one of the first things that went through my mind and my crew’s mind when we crossed the line at Kansas was how it made this weekend’s race easier and less pressure packed. We know now that all we need to do is to go out there and win. We don’t have to worry about riding around and staying out of the wreck. We can get up there and go for the win. But we also want to get a good finish out of it. We have five straight top-five finishes to start the Chase, and we’d love to keep that streak going and make it six in a row at Talladega.”
IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO THIS WEEKEND TO HELP YOUR TEAMMATE BRAD KESELOWSKI ADVANCE TO THE NEXT ROUND OF THE CHASE?
“The restrictor-plate tracks like Talladega and Daytona are different than most other tracks for sure. You can do more at these tracks to help out other drivers, be it your teammate or someone else, because of the draft. It’s easy to get in a line and get with a fast car and help push them to the front of the field or have someone help push you. So of course, if there is an opportunity to work with Brad and both of our cars are fast, we will work together to get to the front. Any team cars that are in a good position will try and help their other teammates get up to the front. We always work together at these tracks anyway.”
