No. 20 Dollar General Toyota News & Notes:

• WELCOME BACK DOLLAR GENERAL: Last week at Bristol Motor Speedway, drivers chose their own songs to be introduced to during driver introductions. If Auto Club Speedway was doing the same thing this week, Logano’s obvious choice would be the song “Black and Yellow.” That’s because this weekend, Dollar General and its bright black and yellow paint scheme will return to the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, the second of 12 scheduled events where Dollar General will serve as the primary sponsor for Logano. Dollar General has been a mainstay sponsor in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for the last several seasons, but moved over to the Joe Gibbs Racing operation this season to expand their program. In addition to the 12 races in the Cup Series, Dollar General will also serve as the primary sponsor for Brian Scott in the entire Nationwide Series schedule and 10 additional Nationwide Series events with Denny Hamlin and Logano behind the wheel.
• STILL A TOP-10 SPRINT CUP SERIES DRIVER: Logano might not have the finishes he’s hoped for the last couple of weeks, but his consistency has kept the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota in the top-10 of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings. Going into this season, Logano has never been in the top-10 in points longer than two weeks in a row. Following his 16th-place finish at Bristol, Logano has now spent all four weeks of the 2012 season in the top-10 in points. Logano currently sits ninth in the standings, just 31 points out of the top-spot and just 11 points out of fifth-place.
• BUSY WEEK FOR LOGANO IN CALI: As the Sprint Cup Series heads to the West Coast, things will heat up both on the track and off. And Logano will have plenty of things to do. First, Logano will be taking part in “Auto Club Speedway Day LA” on Wednesday, an event put on by Auto Club Speedway in order to drive interest/excitement around race weekend. Logano will also participate in the annual Toyota Motorsports Day at Toyota’s California headquarters on Thursday. Joey will also take in some sights while in LA, including a visit to the “Happy Madison” studios (founded by movie star Adam Sandler), located at the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City.
• SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATE: This week, Logano was active on Twitter talking about his new puppy Isla, posting photos and several comments on her antics. In fact, Isla founded her own Twitter page and quickly gained over 2,000 followers. Logano also continued his long but friendly foosball feud with roommate Coleman Pressley. You can find Joey on Twitter @jlogano, on Facebook at facebook.com/joeylogano20 and on YouTube at youtube.com/joeyloganoracing. Dollar General Racing can be found on Twitter @DGRacing.
• THIS WEEK ON THE NO. 20 DOLLAR GENERAL TOYOTA: Dollar General vendor partners Hanes, Hefty Reynolds Wrap, Totino’s, Bounce and Pine Sol will be featured on Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota Camry this weekend at Auto Club Speedway.
• THE RACE: The Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway (Fontana, CA; 2-mile oval) is set for Sunday afternoon, March 25, 2012. The race will be broadcast on FOX at 2:30 p.m. ET, with radio coverage on MRN

Logano’s 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Season Stats:

Logano’s Career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Stats:

Logano’s Career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Stats Auto Club Speedway:

From the Cockpit:

Joey Logano Quotes: “I’m really looking forward to getting to California and seeing how our No. 20 Dollar General Toyota will be. We came out of Vegas with a lot of work to do on our intermediate track package across the board at Joe Gibbs Racing and we had a lot of meetings following that race to figure stuff out. We worked hard and I know that the crew chiefs, engineers and everyone else there really spent a lot of time trying to figure it out and come up with new ideas. There is a lot of new stuff we are going to try this weekend on our team and I’m pretty pumped to see how it works. It’s always great when our entire organization puts their heads together and comes up with some new ideas. Our teams are all moving in the right direction and hopefully we’ll see that in the results this weekend.

“Our last two weeks have been a struggle, but we’ve been able to stay out of trouble and keep our car in one piece and manage to stay right there in the top-10 in points, which is what we are looking for. Even when we have off weeks like we’ve had the last couple, we want to make the most out of it, limit our mistakes and let those off weekends still have a positive impact on the point standings. The last two weeks, we’ve had a better car than our results show. I guess that is both good and bad. It’s good, because we have cars that have been fast and great every weekend, but it’s bad because we know we should have better finishes than the results show. What most people forget is that we are only four races into this new relationship between me and Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief). We’ve grown together a lot through these first four races and I see it going even better as we continue on.”

From the Pit Box:

Jason Ratcliff Quotes: “Our main focus going into this weekend at California is going to be to really explore some new things on our intermediate package. We weren’t pleased with how the Las Vegas race went, so we have some new ideas and we are going to try some new things during the weekend and hope they work out like we thing they are going to. I think we have a good car that we are taking there so I’m looking forward to it. As an organization, we put our heads together and came up with a lot of new ideas. Hopefully we will get a lot of time in practice to explore things.”

No. 20 Dollar General Toyota / Joe Gibbs Racing Team:

Driver – Joey Logano
Crew Chief – Jason Ratcliff
Car Chief – Jason Shapiro
Race Engineer – Jacob Canter
Engineer – Mike Lorusso
Spotter – Rocky Ryan
Shock Specialist – Dusty Boyd
Mechanic – Scott Geerts
Mechanic – Todd Foster
Mechanic – Leo Thorsen
Tire Specialist – Jerold Shires
Engine Tuner – Mike Johnson
Tires – Bill Byrne
Truck Driver – Thomas “Thumper” McCrimmon
Truck Driver – Scott “Scooter” Crowell
Jackman – Jason Tate
Gasman – John Eicher
Front Tire Changer – John Royer
Front Tire Carrier – Chris Taylor
Rear Tire Changer – Joe Crossen
Rear Tire Carrier – Eric Groen

About Dollar General:

Dollar General Corporation has been delivering value to shoppers for more than 70 years. Dollar General helps shoppers Save time. Save money. Every day!® by offering products that are frequently used and replenished, such as food, snacks, health and beauty aids, cleaning supplies, basic apparel, house wares and seasonal items at low everyday prices in convenient neighborhood locations.

Dollar General is committed to the communities it serves and is proud to support initiatives that help others improve their lives through literacy and education. The Dollar General Literacy Foundation awards grants to nonprofit organizations that help individuals learn to read, prepare for their GED or learn to speak English.

Find the Dollar General store nearest you or learn more about the company at www.dollargeneral.com or on Dollar General’s Facebook page.