Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway Preview

Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway (1.5-mile oval, Kansas City, KC)

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

Sunday, October 6, 2:00 pm ET

• BACK TO THE TOP-10: With Joey Logano’s third-place finish at Dover International Speedway last weekend, the 23-year-old driver made a return to the top 10 after three-straight races without a top-10 finish. It marked only the second time all year long that Logano has gone three-straight races without a top-10 result.
• CAREER HIGHS: The third-place finish at Dover was Logano’s ninth top-five result of the season. Those nine top-fives are a career high for Logano, who’s previous best was seven top-five finishes in the 2010 season. He also has 15 top-10 finishes, which is just one short of tying his career best, also established in the 2010 season. Only two drivers have more top-five results this season than Logano and only four drivers have more top 10s.
• SECOND TIME AROUND: This weekend’s race at Kansas will mark the eighth race this season that Logano and crew chief Todd Gordon have visited a track for a second time working together. In five of the previous seven, Logano and Gordon have used their notes from the first time around to improve their finish in the second trip to the track. Logano had better finishes in the second events at Loudon, Pocono, Michigan, Bristol and Dover already this season. Logano finished 39th in the first race at Kansas after getting involved in a mid-race accident.
• A LITTLE HISTORY: Though it came in the Nationwide Series competition, Logano made a little bit of history last weekend at Dover, winning his fourth-straight NNS race at the Monster Mile. This was a feat no national series driver has ever done before.
• PROVEN VEHICLES: Logano’s primary and backup cars this week are both stout Fusions. The primary chassis, 857, won at Michigan International Speedway in August. The backup chassis, 862, ran second at Atlanta just a few weeks later.

YOU ARE GOING BACK TO KANSAS FOR A SECOND TIME. HOW HAS IT BEEN WORKING WITH TODD A SECOND TIME AT TRACKS?

“Well, the first time around, I think we were at a disadvantage because we really didn’t have any sort of notebook to go off of. We were just learning each other and we were learning how to communicate and how we want to have the cars set up. Now, we are going back to these places a second time and we have a place to start and we have a whole race weekend worth of notes to go off of. We have a better starting spot. And I think you are seeing that in the results. I feel like we are catching up to everyone else now.”

YOU HAVE HAD A LOT OF SUCCESS ON 1.5-MILE TRACKS. ANY REASON BEHIND THAT?

“Those type of tracks have just always suited my driving style. There is just something about those tracks that I like. I don’t really know what it is. You have a nice little mix of speed and drivability at these places. Even in the Nationwide Series, I’ve had a lot of success on the 1.5-mile tracks. And those have been our best tracks this year. We should have won Chicagoland a few weeks ago and we’ve been fast everywhere.”