· Joey Logano started eighth and finished ninth in Sunday afternoon’s Foxwoods Casino Resort 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 22 AAA Insurance Ford Mustang recorded his 14th top-10 finish of the season but his day was anything the easy. He and the team fought handling issues for most of the race, which at one point, forced him outside the top-20.

· Logano reported the AAA Insurance Ford Mustang was too free or corner entry during the early laps of the race. He ran inside the top-10 as the crew developed a strategy to tighten up the No. 22 Mustang. A caution at lap 46 brought Logano to pit road for four tires, fuel, two rounds of trackbar adjustment and he returned to the track in ninth position.

· Despite the changes, Logano maintained a loose corner entry condition throughout the remainder of Stage 1, finishing 13th when the segment ended on lap 75. Under the stage caution, he reported the only noticeable handling change was that the No. 22 AAA Ford Mustang was now tighter on throttle. As the laps ticked off in Stage 2, Logano continued to battle handling conditions, being relegated to the 16th position at lap 103.

· A caution flag on lap 111 gave the No. 22 team a chance to pit for adjustments. The team elected to return the trackbar to the race start position along with an air pressure adjustment. A caution prior to the end of the second stage allowed crew chief Todd Gordon to leave Logano on the track, cycling forward to claim a second-place finish when the segment ended on lap 150, netting nine valuable regular season points. Logano pitted during the stage caution for an additional trackbar and air pressure adjustments. He worked his way up to 11th position by lap 170, reporting he was dragging the brake to the center of the corner to keep the car tightened up.

· Most of the leaders pitted during the seventh caution on lap 215 including Logano, who returned for another wedge adjustment, trying to improve a car that had been slowly coming to him over the course of the race.

· The ninth and final caution with 34 laps remaining, brought Logano back to pit road for air pressure adjustments and four fresh tires. He restarted in 11th position, in the lesser preferred inside line.

· With a much-improved No. 22 AAA Insurance Ford Mustang, Logano would rally through the field. He ran as high as sixth before fading to ninth at the checkered flag fell. Logano brushed off his many struggles during the afternoon to keep the lead in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings by three points over Kyle Busch.

 

“We were off when we unloaded the AAA Insurance Ford and we just kept trying to find a little something here and there to keep moving forward on things and never really did. We qualified eighth and ran about 12th to 15th most of the race. We grabbed some stage points in the second stage and came home ninth, so that’s the best we had. I’m a little disappointed with that. I want to be better here, but we learned what not to do and sometimes that’s very valuable.”