Mechanical Gremlins Can’t Keep Logano from Top-10 Finish at Dover
Post-Race Highlights:
Joey Logano and the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota qualified a strong 11th for Sunday’s FedEx 400 at Dover International Speedway. It was Logano’s best career starting position at “The Monster Mile.”
- When the 400-lap race started, Logano jumped up to 10th-place and found himself in either 10th or 11th for the first 50 laps of the race. The car was loose in and loose off early, a condition that would plague Logano for much of the afternoon.
- By lap 62, Logano had fallen to 14th with a car that was still very loose. The 14th place position would be the lowest Logano would run all afternoon long.
- The Home Depot pit crew was on their game in Dover. The crew gained Logano positions on the track in all six of their pit stops. During their stop on lap 228, Logano came in the pits in 11th and came out in seventh, gaining four spots on pit road.
- Logano broke back into the top-10 on lap 117 and found himself in a familiar position – top-10 and still loose in and tight center.
- Logano made a strong charge during a long green flag run just past halfway and got himself into the top-five by lap 288.
- Earlier in the event, the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota shut off on its own while running around under caution. Logano tried several times and finally got the car to refire without losing any positions. On lap 346, while running seventh, the car once again shut off on its own while riding around under caution. This time, Logano could not get the Home Depot Toyota refired right away and fell from seventh to 15th for not keeping up with caution speed.
- With 50 laps to go, Logano set sail and tried to get his No. 20 back into the top-10 after restarting 15th. With 30 laps to go Logano was back in the top-10 and was able to get up to eighth before the checker flag flew despite the fact he was catching the next several cars in front of him.
- The eighth-place finish was Logano’s fourth top-10 of the season and his second top-10 in the last three races.
- Unofficially, the top-10 kept Logano 16th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings.
Logano’s Post-Race Thoughts:
“We had a solid run with our Home Depot Toyota today. We finished eighth and really could have finished somewhere around fifth or sixth I believe. We had a car that wasn’t good enough to win, but was better than where we finished. Sometimes though, races just don’t really go your way. We had something happen with the engine twice during the race where it just cut off and I couldn’t get it refired while we were running around under caution. The first time it happened I got it fired back up and didn’t lose any spots. The second time we were running seventh and I couldn’t get it to start. We fell back to 15th or so and that really changed the outlook of our race. Instead of racing to get into the top-five which we should have been doing, we were then racing to get back into the top-10. The car was good and we were able to get back up to eighth there by the end of the race. With a few more laps I could have gotten a couple of the cars in front of me but there were a couple of cars coming behind us with fresh tires. So I’m happy we were able to get an eighth even though our Home Depot Toyota was better than that.
“All-in-all, it was a good weekend. We were strong off the truck and we had a better direction all weekend long for what we wanted to do in practice, qualifying and the race. Winning the Nationwide (Series) race yesterday helped build some confidence and taught me a little about what to expect today. Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) made some good calls to make the car a lot better by the end of the race and the pit crew was unbelievable today. We still have a little work to do but we showed the potential that we have this weekend to run like this week in and week out and just get better with more time together.”
Related Articles