The Alliance Truck Parts 250 at Michigan International Speedway (2-mile speedway Brooklyn, Mich.)

The No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang driven by Joey Logano

June 15, 2013

• NEVER GOT THE SHOT: Last weekend’s NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) event at Iowa Speedway was dubbed an “extreme” double duty weekend for Joey Logano as the Sprint Cup Series veteran was attempting to fly back and forth between Pocono Raceway and Iowa to compete in the event. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had her own plans. After getting to practice that car on Friday and qualify it on Saturday, the race was postponed until Sunday due to rain, meaning Logano had to forgo his shot behind the wheel. Logano gave way to Ryan Blaney, who ended up finishing ninth.
• ANOTHER TRACK, AGAIN DEFENDING WINNER: Following his nine-win season last year, Logano once again comes into the weekend as the defending race winner. Logano led 31 of the 125 laps in last year’s NNS event at Michigan en route to the victory. Logano has raced at Michigan four times in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, finishing in the top-10 on every occasion.
• LAST FOR A FEW WEEKS: The Michigan event will be the last NASCAR Nationwide Series event on the schedule for Logano until Daytona in early July. AJ Allmendinger will race the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford at Road America next week, while Brad Keselowski will be back behind the wheel of the No. 22 at Kentucky Speedway.
• IMPRESSIVE STATS: Even though he’s competed in only four NASCAR Nationwide Series events this season, Logano has an impressive average finish of 2.5 in his four races this year. With his four top-five finishes this season, Logano now has 57 top-fives (and 90 top-10s -79 percent) in 114-career starts, meaning he has finished in the top-five in exactly half of all of his Nationwide Series events.

YOU ARE AGAIN THE DEFENDING RACE WINNER? DOES THAT PUT ANY ADDITIONAL PRESSURE ON YOU?

“I don’t think it does. I don’t let it put any pressure on my even if people want to. Last year was last year and this year is this year. We are looking to go out there and win each and every race we enter with the Discount Tire Ford Mustang. I never really ran that well at Michigan before last year and I was able to learn some things, which hopefully will help me out for this season. But I don’t think about last year much. I just want to keep doing what we are doing, which is going out there and running strong and running up front each and every week.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR NNS STATS THUS FAR?

“I don’t really pay much attention to stats, but when you look at the numbers, it’s something that you take a lot of pride in. This is not an easy sport and you really have to work hard at what you do. So to be able to look back and think that you have finished top-five in half of the events you’ve run is pretty remarkable. That just goes to show the teams I’ve been able to be with and a lot of that goes back into the hard work all of them have done over the years.”