· Joey Logano overcame a brush with the outside wall to score a 10th-place finish in the Bank of American ROVAL 400 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. Logano grabbed his 17th top-10 finish of the season and advanced to the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Playoffs with the fourth-place finish in Stage 1 at Charlotte. He is fourth in the NASCAR Cup Series standings, 17 points behind leader Kyle Busch.
· Logano started third and held firm to the positions during the early laps of the race, struggling slightly with being too tight in the left-hand corners. As the run progressed, the balance on the No. 22 Mustang got progressively looser off the slow speed corners while remaining tight on the left-hand turns, shuffling Logano to fifth position by lap 19. Crew chief Todd Gordon kept Logano on the track during Stage 1 and finished the opening segment of the race in fourth position, scoring seven points and officially advancing the team to the Round of 12.
· The driver of the Shell-Pennzoil/Autotrader Ford led the opening laps of the Stage 2 before dropping back to the fourth position, conservatively logging laps. Logano made making his first pit stop of the afternoon under green on lap 36 for four tires, air pressure adjustments plus two rounds of left rear wedge.
· Unfortunately, Logano exited the pit lane on lap 37 with lower tire pressures and the left-front wheel locked up, damaging the left-front fender of the No. 22 Ford. He returned to the pit lane the next lap for repairs. The team would elect to pit again with a caution being displayed on lap 43, making further repairs to the left-front and left-rear of the No. 22 Ford.
· Logano continued to battle with a damaged race car during the opening laps of the final stage. Gordon kept Logano on the track during the fifth caution on lap 63 and during the yellow Logano reported that he was still battling a tight condition, made worse by the car snapping loose on corner exit.
· Logano pitted under green on lap 75 for fuel-only with the crew only making repairs to the No. 22 Mustang. He returned to the track as other leaders began their green flag pit stop cycle. A caution flag on lap 90 set up a pit stop by the 22 team under yellow for four tires, an air pressure adjustment and more damage repair.
· With the fresh tires Logano powered back into the top-10, claiming a 10th-place finish at the checkered flag. The finish might have been even better if not for three cautions over the final 15 laps, which took away Logano’s advantage of fresher tires for the stretch run.

 

“It was brutal inside the car. The temperature was up for sure. It was a tough day. We had a pretty good Shell-Pennzoil/Autotrader Ford, something that could compete. We were in the top five there the first stage and looked like we were going to have a car that could contend and then I just made a mistake on pit road and hit the wall. It’s not speed. I keep saying that. It’s not that we’re far off on speed, we just have to clean up the races and today is on me.”