Joey Logano and his No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion ran up front all day long and had a shot to win the race late, but got slowed up by another car on a restart with just five laps to go and had to settle for a sixth-place finish on Sunday afternoon at Chicagoland Speedway. Logano started the race second after qualifying was rained out on Friday evening and the starting lineup was set by practice speeds. Logano settled into a rhythm early in the 267-lap race, but slipped back to fifth after the first 25 laps of the event. The Shell-Pennzoil Ford was tight center, loose off for much of the race, but was fast on the long run. As the long green-flag runs would progress, Logano would make his way back to the front of the field and ran in the top five pretty much all afternoon. Logano would slip back to seventh when varying pit strategies and timely cautions got other teams in front of the No. 22 Ford Fusion. With just seven laps to go, Logano and most of the leaders came to pit road before a final five-lap shootout. Logano found himself sixth on the restart – the first car on four fresh tires. Unfortunately, Logano got put four-wide on the start and lost some ground in the top lane, then got bottled behind the No. 18 of Kyle Busch, stopping his momentum and causing him to lose several positions. Logano would make a few spots back up and finish sixth at the checkers. The finish, Logano’s 21st top-10 finish of the season, saw Logano start out the Chase For the Sprint Cup fifth in the standings, five points behind leader Matt Kenseth.
“I felt like we were in the cat-bird seat on that restart starting sixth with new tires. I had a good start and got three-wide. The 18 got tight and fenced us. We lost all the spots that we should have gained. I felt like we were in the position that we needed to be in to win this thing. It just didn’t work out. All-in-all, this is what we needed to start the Chase.”