No. 20 Home Depot Toyota News & Notes:

• LOOKING BACK AT LAST WEEK: Joey Logano started out the 2012 season strong, coming home ninth in the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. Logano was a constant force all evening long in the race that was delayed over 30 hours because of rain. Despite starting 12th, Logano raced in the top-10 nearly all night long. Eventually, Logano found himself in a position to battle for the win late in the race. However, over the final green-white-checkered finish, Logano could find no helpers to draft with him to the front of the field and he had to settle for a ninth-place finish. By virtue of leading a couple of laps in the race, Logano is tied with Carl Edwards for eighth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings heading into this weekend’s race in Phoenix.
• BUSY WEEK FOR LOGANO: Thanks to the rain, fire and fog in Daytona, the week leading up to the Phoenix event will be a busy one. Logano, like many of the drivers and teams that were planning to fly home to North Carolina after the Daytona 500 ended in the early hours of Tuesday morning, was stranded in Daytona another night due to heavy fog both in North Carolina and Daytona not allowing flights to leave the local airport. Therefore, Logano wasn’t able to get back to North Carolina until 3pm on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Logano flew to Cleveland, Ohio, where he will sign autographs for Toyota at the Cleveland Auto Show. Logano will then turn around and fly right from Cleveland to Phoenix to participate in this weekend’s event at Phoenix.
• TRYING TO “RATTLE” RATTLESNAKE HILL: Logano has had a love-and-hate relationship with Phoenix International Raceway during his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career. Logano has competed at six events at the one-mile oval with a career-best finish of third, which came at the end of the 2010 season, when Logano went on a tear of top-five and top-10 finishes to wrap up the season. Logano has three top-10 starts at Phoenix, with his career-best qualifying effort a sixth, which he has done twice (spring 2010, spring 2011) . In the Nationwide Series, Logano has never finished outside of the top-10 at Phoenix.
• IT’S ONLY ONE MILE, BUT NOT AN EASY PLACE TO SEE: In comparison to places like Talladega and Daytona and their 2.5-mile size and sprawling acres, and Pocono where the backstretch can seem forever away from the frontstretch, Phoenix International Raceway is relatively small in nature. However, because of the unique layout of Phoenix and the setup of the grandstands, Phoenix can be one of the more difficult tracks to spot from. The spotters stand on top of the grandstand that goes into turn one. That makes for it a little more difficult when trying to clear a driver in turns three and four.
• SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATE: Logano was very active on Twitter during the Daytona 500 weekend, including during the rain-delayed race. His most commented on tweet was one asking if anyone has seen famous swimsuit model Kate Upton during the rain delay. Logano’s followers jumped big time as well during Daytona. Logano added nearly 20,000-plus followers just during the Daytona Speedweeks events. His goal is to get to 100,000 followers by the end of the season and he is now halfway to his goal. You can find Joey on Twitter @jlogano, 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 Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway (Avondale, AZ; 1-mile tri-oval) is set for Sunday, March 4, 2012 at 2:30 pm ET. That race will be broadcast on FOX (TV) and MRN (radio).

From the Cockpit:

Joey Logano Quotes: “Phoenix is a unique track and it will be interesting to go back now a second time since they reconfigured the track and repaved it. The place was always racey before, but like any track when you put new pavement on it, it takes a little time for it to come back around and get back to the way it was. The one thing that stands out about Phoenix though is the fact that you think it’s just a one-mile track, but it is so much different. The way you enter the corners, how it is relatively flat and the kink in the backstretch just make it a unique place. It’s actually a lot of fun to race.

“I think we are going into Phoenix with a lot of momentum. We wanted to win the Daytona 500, but if we couldn’t, we wanted to come out of there with a good solid finish and some momentum on our side. I think we did just that. And it wasn’t just the Daytona 500 either. Our Home Depot Toyota was fast in every race down there in Daytona. We were fast in the Bud Shootout and had a shot to win, we were solid in the Gatorade Duels and we were fast and had a shot to win the Daytona 500. That really gives me a lot of confidence, gives the team a lot of confidence and gives Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) a lot of confidence. Now, we just need to go into Phoenix and have another great weekend.”

From the Pit Box:

Jason Ratcliff Quotes: “I think we came out of Daytona in a pretty good position. Daytona is such an unknown and to be able to get out of there with a top-10 is pretty solid. Now, I think everyone in the garage area is ready to get to Phoenix and just get back to what really is a normal weekend of racing. Now too, you are back to really working more on the handling characteristics of the car and making sure you have the best package on the track. Being in Daytona a couple of extra days really put the squeeze on a lot of teams, but I think everyone will be ok.”

The Joe Gibbs Racing Machines:

• PRIMARY CAR INFO: Chassis #336 will ride with Logano and the Home Depot team at Phoenix this weekend. The car was used at Phoenix last season.
• BACK-UP CAR: Chassis #339 will serve at the team’s backup for Phoenix.

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