Start: 1st | Finish: 7th | Daytona 500 Starting Position: 1st

After securing the pole for the 66th Daytona 500 Wednesday night, Joey Logano wheeled the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang to a seventh-place finish in the first 60-lap Duel race. After starting from the inside of row one, Logano gave way to the top lane with a better run before dropping back in the field after experiencing a loose-handling condition. As green flag pit stops began to cycle, Logano cycled to second in the running order before pitting with a group of Fords on lap 44 for fuel only. Logano led the group off of pit road to assume the lead with 15 laps to go, but gave way to four Chevrolets in the draft before settling at the tail end of the pack in fifth. Following a caution on lap 49, Logano lined up from the inside of row three for the restart and ultimately crossed the line seventh.

“I was a little further back than I wanted to be. We did a good job with our cycle and got ourselves out there, but there weren’t a lot of Fords with me. I was on my own there and the Chevy gang came and got by us and the Toyotas were coming and there’s no defending it. We just didn’t have enough numbers in this race and that was just by luck. That kind of cycled us a little bit too far back and I thought I could maybe push the bottom row and get going, but just kind of ran a little bit short.”

 

WHAT’S NEXT: The NASCAR Cup Series will have practice for the 66th DAYTONA 500 Friday at 5:35 p.m. ET on FS1.