No. 20 Home Depot Toyota News & Notes:
- LAST WEEKEND FULL OF HIGHS AND LOWS: Coming into a race weekend that Joey Logano thought he had as good of chance as anyone of sweeping both Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races, the 21-year-old had a weekend of highs and lows at Talladega Superspeedway. Logano won Saturday’s Nationwide Series event with a last-lap pass of Sprint Cup Series teammate Kyle Busch. It was Logano’s second Nationwide Series win of the season and 11th of his career. On Sunday, Logano spent most of the day riding around at the back of the field trying to stay out of trouble and keep his No. 20 Toyota fresh for the end of the race. Unfortunately, despite being at the back of the pack, trouble found Logano and he was swept up in three different multi-car wrecks that Talladega is known to produce. The first two accidents produced only cosmetic damage and Logano was able to continue, but the final wreck knocked him from the event.
- FIGHTING FOR THE PIT CREW: Following the Darlington event, the 24 teams for the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge will be set in stone and the No. 20 Home Depot team is still in the running to be one of those 24 teams. The teams are determined through the same procedure as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star race. Currently, there are 20 teams “locked” into the event with four spots still open. Of the teams not currently locked into the Pit Crew Challenge, the Home Depot team would hold the third “locked in spot” based on the current Owner’s Championship point standings. The No. 20 team will be in a fight with the Nos. 1, 42 and 31 to lock down the final two spots into the Pit Crew Challenge. The final roster of teams will be announced following the Darlington event.
- QUALIFYING AT DARLINGTON NOT SO EASY: Of all the tracks on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule, Darlington ranks as the fourth best for Logano in terms of average starting position. In three races at the track, Logano has averaged an 11.7 starting position. This includes an impressive fifth-place qualifying effort in his rookie season of 2009. He has also qualified 13th and 17th in his other starts at the track. His best career finish also came in his rookie season, when he led 19 laps and came home ninth.
- DOUBLE DUTY DARLINGTON?: Normally when the Sprint Cup Series heads to Darlington, Logano isn’t pulling a double-duty weekend. This time around though, things will be different. On the heels of last weekend’s Nationwide Series victory at Talladega, Logano will once again be behind the wheel of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the Nationwide Series, the first time he’s raced in the series at Darlington since 2009.
- SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATE: Last weekend in Talladega, Logano served as the SPEED Channel Twitter correspondent during the race weekend. All weekend long, Logano’s tweets and twitpics were featured during SPEED broadcasts of practice, qualifying, Trackside Now and Sunday’s pre-race show. You can find Joey on Twitter @joeylogano, on Facebook at facebook.com/joeylogano20 and on YouTube at youtube.com/joeyloganoracing. Home Depot Racing can be found on Twitter @HomeDepotRacing
- RACE INFO: The Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (Darlington, SC; 1.366-mile oval) is set for Saturday night, May 12, 2012 at 6:30 pm ET. The race will be broadcast on FOX (TV) and MRN (radio).
Logano’s 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Season Stats:
Starts |
Wins |
Top 5 |
Top 10 |
Poles |
Laps Led |
Earnings |
Avg. Start |
Avg. Finish |
10 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
$1,221,198 |
12.1 |
18.2 |
Logano’s Career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Stats:
Starts |
Wins |
Top 5 |
Top 10 |
Poles |
Laps Led |
Earnings |
Avg. Start |
Avg. Finish |
121 |
1 |
14 |
31 |
3 |
149 |
$15,482,068 |
18.2 |
19.0 |
Logano’s Career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Stats at Kansas Speedway:
Starts |
Wins |
Top 5 |
Top 10 |
Poles |
Laps Led |
Earnings |
Avg. Start |
Avg. Finish |
3 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
19 |
$332,914 |
11.7 |
23.7 |
From the Cockpit:
Joey Logano Quotes: “Darlington Raceway is probably one of the most unique tracks that we run on. There is really nowhere else like it. The track is big and fast, but the racing there really resembles a mix of short track racing and speedway racing. And, a lot like the plate tracks like Talladega, you have to be on your game and pay attention and if you don’t, you can easily get into trouble pretty fast with the way we run right up against the wall. Thankfully these new Sprint Cup Series cars can really take a beating and you can get your ‘Darlington stripe’ and not completely ruin your day.
“We as a team really need a good run in Darlington. We started out so strong this season but we’ve really struggled here as of late. We are working on making things better and we were in a position to have a great finish last week at Talladega and just got caught up in the typical Talladega mess. This weekend you can get caught up in someone else’s mess pretty easy too. Darlington is really a track that you need to stay on your toes and be alert all of the time. If you put your guard down just a little bit, someone will slap the wall in front of you and you will run right up on them or the same thing will happen to you. You have to be 100-percent committed. There are some tracks that you have some time to relax maybe while you are on the straights and such, but Darlington really isn’t one of those. You need to stay on your game all race long.”
No. 20 Home Depot 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