· Joey Logano started second and finished 13th in Sunday afternoon’s Gander RV 400 at Pocono Raceway. After finishing second and third in the first two stages respectively, Logano’s day was derailed by a lengthy pit stop on lap 114, which forced the driver of the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford to rally late in the race for a respectable finish.

· The driver of the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford ran in second position for the opening 23 laps before he pitted right-side tires and an air pressure adjustment. After returning to the track, Logano reported that his Mustang was free on corner entry while being tight on exit. As the green flag pit stops cycled through, Logano held firm to second-place until the Stage 1 ended on lap 50, scoring nine points. Logano pitted during the stage caution on lap 52 for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment looking to cure Logano’s handling conditions from the first stage.

· Through the opening laps of the second stage, Logano reported he was still fighting loose with the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford while running in the 10th position. He began cycling forward through the running order as other cars pitted, reaching the top-five by lap 82. A caution flag at lap 85 would change the complexity of stage strategy. Under the caution, Logano reported that he was out of control in dirty air, but in clean air it was solid. The third caution on lap 93, with just seven laps to go in the stage, split the strategy again, allowing Logano to finish third when Stage 2 concluded on lap 100.

· Logano restarted third when the race went green on lap 103, but quickly picked off second position. A caution flag brought the field back to pit road at lap 115, which changed the complexion of the race for the Shell-Pennzoil team. Crew chief Todd Gordon chose a four-tire stop but unfortunately, the air hose for the rear changer got hung up on the pit wall fire hose. The extra time spent on pit road resulted in a loss of track position, shuffling Logano back to 19th position for the restart on lap 118.

· The driver of the No. 22 Mustang had climbed back to 16th position by lap 131. Gordon instructed his driver to go into an aggressive fuel saving mode for the remainder of the race. During the seventh and final caution, Logano pitted for two tires. He restarted 17th for the green-white-checkered dash to the finish, battling back to claim a 13th-place finish.

 

“We just lost track position on a late pit stop. It’s unfortunate, we had a good car in clean air, struggled a bit in traffic but I don’t think that was different than anyone else in the race. Fortunately, we scored decent stage points in both the first two stages so that minimized the hit on finishing outside the top-10.”