• Joey Logano qualified the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion in the 16th position for Sunday’s Aaron’s 499. It marked the first time all season long that Logano and the No. 22 team did not make it to the final session in knockout qualifying.
• As is typical with restrictor-plate racing, it didn’t take Logano long at all to move his way towards the front of the field. By lap 15, he had already worked his way to the top 10 and eventually he entered the top five.
• Early in the race, Logano proved that the Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion was one of the fastest cars on the track as he took the top spot for the first time on lap 21 and paced the field for the next 10 laps.
• Logano said the car was handling well in the draft and crew chief Todd Gordon made minimal changes over the course of the race.
• Logano led for a total of 25 laps on the afternoon and he has now led laps in nine of 10 events to start the season.
• During the middle portion of the race, Logano got shuffled back in the pack and he decided to stay toward the back to try and avoid any trouble around him. It worked out as several multi-car accidents happened in front of the 23-year-old driver and he was able to stay away from the fray.
• The Shell-Pennzoil Ford was able to move back to the front and then fell back in the field once again. The team then opted to pit and top off with fuel following a late-race restart to ensure Logano would be able to go the full race distance.
• On lap 174, Logano was making a charge through the field when the No. 48 car of Jimmie Johnson spun in front of him. Logano had nowhere to go and slammed into the wall and the No. 22 Ford was hit by several other cars. Unfortunately, the damage forced Logano to retire from the race and he was scored in the 32nd position.
• Despite the finish, Logano remained sixth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings, now just 42 points behind leader Jeff Gordon.

WHAT HAPPENED IN FRONT OF YOU THERE AT THE END OF THE RACE?

“The 48 (car) just started spinning out in front of me and then he caught it and had to save it, it’s Talladega. All of us are in a pack so when one car gets free then we all kind of get jumbled up there. I think a lot of it was just old tires when people came in for fuel only and their cars were getting really loose. When that happened both times I think that’s when you’ve seen the bigger crashes. That’s Talladega. You come into this race almost expecting something like that to happen. It’s unfortunate. We had a really fast car. Our car was booking along at the beginning of the race and we just lost our track position with about 50 (laps) to go and that’s what we get.”