Bank of America 500 Preview

Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval, Concord, NC)

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

Saturday, October 12, 7:30 pm ET

• SLOWLY CLIMBING: On the strength of another top-five finish, Joey Logano once again finds himself in the top 10 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings. Logano’s fourth-place finish at Kansas last weekend vaulted him two positions in the point standings to 10th. The 23-year-old now sits less than 25 points out of the top five and just 34 points out of third place.
• HELLO TO HERTZ: The Hertz Corporation, one of the world’s leading car rental and transportation companies and a first-year sponsor with Penske Racing, will have its logo on the side of the No. 22 Ford Fusion this weekend in Charlotte serving as a co-sponsor with Shell-Pennzoil. Hertz has been a proud supporter of the No. 22 NASCAR Nationwide Series Mustang this season, where the company has won five of six races as a primary sponsor.
• STATS STILL SAY CHARLOTTE THE BEST: When you add in his second-place finish in the Sprint All-Star race and fifth-place finish in the Coke 600 in May, Logano’s stats tell the tale of Charlotte Motor Speedway being his best track on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule. In nine points-paying races there, he’s earned three top-five and six top-10 finishes. His average finish of 9.6 is his personal best of all the tracks on the circuit and it’s also leads all current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers.
• CAREER NUMBERS: With his fourth-place finish at Kansas, Logano extended his career-best numbers for top-five results. His 10 top-five finishes this year eclipsed his previous career-best of seven, which came in 2010. He’s also tied his career-best single-season top-10 finish number of 16, which he also accomplished in 2010. Only drivers Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson have more top-five finishes this season than Logano. Only Jonson, Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have more top-10 finishes this season than Logano.
• TESTING, TESTING AGAIN: Logano, along with his teammate Brad Keselowski, and a host of other Sprint Cup Series drivers are testing at the half-mile Martinsville Speedway track this week in preparation for the Chase race at the “paperclip” on October 27. Despite starting fourth in the sprint at Martinsville, Logano struggled with a 23rd-place finish.

WHY HAVE YOU BEEN SO GOOD AT CHARLOTTE DURING YOUR CAREER?

“Charlotte is just one of my favorite tracks. And that’s not just because I’ve always been pretty good there. I just love racing at Charlotte and I’ve happened to have a lot of success there I don’t’ know what it is about it. It just suits my driving style and I have a lot of confidence when we go there. And this year, we have already run there twice and have two top-five finishes and I feel like we have a great notebook to work from. We have really been pretty good at the 1.5-mile tracks this year, especially as of late. If you look at the remaining schedule, I feel like Charlotte is probably our best track and the best shot we have to win.”

YOU HAVE 10 TOP-FIVE FINISHES THIS YEAR, WHICH IS A CAREER BEST. WOULD YOU CALL THIS YOUR BEST YEAR?

“For sure. I think this has been my best year in the Cup Series. I feel like we have even been better than our results show. You look at the numbers and we really should be top-five in points and should have been all year long I think. We have just had a few untimely issues that have knocked us back down and we’ve had to do a lot of fighting from behind. If some of those 40th-place finishes would have at least been 15th or 20th place finishes, that’s a lot of extra points. But this has been a big year for me. I feel like we are considered legitimate contenders each and every week now.”