AAA 400 Race Preview

AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway (1-mile oval, Dover, Del.)

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

Sunday, September 29, 2:00 pm ET

• LOOKING TO MOVE UP: With his 14th-place finish in last weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Joey Logano remained 12th in the Sprint Cup Series point standings. He is positioned 69 points from first place, but just 30 points away from the top five in the Chase.
• WALTER REED VISIT: Logano will be one of a number of NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series drivers that will be making a visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD on Thursday afternoon. Logano, along with Penske Racing’s Roger Penske, Walt Czarnecki and his teammates Brad Keselowski and Sam Hornish Jr., will visit with injured troops and participate in a dinner before heading to Dover.
• DOUBLE DUTY: Logano will return to the seat of the No. 22 Hertz Ford Mustang in the Nationwide Series this weekend in Dover. Logano has won the last three NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Dover International Speedway, sweeping both in 2012 and the spring race this season.
• MONSTER MILE MEMORIES: Dover, conveniently nicknamed the “Monster Mile,” holds a number of memories for Logano, both good and bad. Logano wrapped up his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Championship at Dover International Speedway in 2007, capping off a remarkable and record-breaking season that saw him win seven races. Logano then made his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut on May 31, 2008 at Dover International Speedway, where he earned a ninth-place starting spot and a sixth-place finish. Logano also suffered one of the biggest accidents of his career at Dover in 2009, when his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series machine rolled a total of seven times down the banking of turns three and four. In 2011, he was involved in another hair-raising accident after just missing the win in the NASCAR Nationwide Series event at the mile-long track.
• GETTING BETTER: In the early part of his career, Dover wasn’t always the best of place for Logano. But over the last couple of years, he has produced much better results at the high-banked track. Logano has earned top-10 results in his last three Dover starts, finishing eighth, 10th and seventh dating back to last season.

HOW TOUGH IS IT GOING TO BE TO MAKE A RUN FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP OVER THESE FINAL EIGHT RACES?

“It’s going to be tough for sure. The way that the 20 team has been running and the fact that we got in a big hole with our engine issues in Chicago put us behind, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still do it. All it takes is for a couple of guys to have a bad race here or there and you are right back in the hunt. But we need to get back to doing our thing and that’s the plan this weekend. We need to just run our race and let everything else take care of itself. We struggled a bit at New Hampshire, but I think we can turn it around this weekend.”

WHY HAVE YOU ALWAYS LOVED DOVER SO MUCH?

“One of the questions I get asked a lot when we do question and answer sessions is what is your favorite track. Dover would be very high on my list. It’s just a track I feel like I can get around well. I love the speed and the sensation of the banking. It’s really cool to just run around there, especially in qualifying trim. I’m excited to go back with a race in the books between me and (crew chief) Todd (Gordon). I think we are going to be really fast this weekend.”