• Joey Logano started eighth and finished sixth in Thursday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It was a strong effort for Logano, who led 42 laps on the night and won Stage 1, his second stage win of the season. Logano maintained position inside the top-10 throughout the race with considerable time spent in the top-five, ultimately battling a tight handling Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang in the closing laps and finishing sixth.
• On the initial start of the race, Logano charged to fourth before the caution flag was displayed on the opening lap. When the race resumed, Logano reported the Shell-Pennzoil Mustang was slightly tight in the top-groove. With teams electing to pit at the competition caution, crew chief Paul Wolfe elected to leave Logano on the track to claim the lead. After a 75-minute stoppage due to rain, Logano maintained the lead as the race resumed and went on to win his second stage in the last two races.
• Logano would lead the field to green to begin Stage 2, but fell to third before a lap-73 caution flag. Logano reported he was a little tight and only needed a small adjustment, but was lacking overall straightaway speed. Logano maintained the third position until the completion of Stage 2 while battling a vibration he described as a “five out of 10.”
• At the beginning of the final stage, Logano settled into the fifth position before moving up to fourth when the No. 88 had to make an unscheduled stop. Logano remained too tight over the long run to the checkered flag, ultimately bringing the Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang home in the sixth position.

 

“We had a good-to-okay day. We were able to get some track position early and win the stage. A couple of restarts really set me back some and then it was pretty tough to pass once we got running. The track wasn’t really wide enough to be able to make a lot of gains on the long run, unless another car was really falling off drastically.”