• Joey Logano started ninth and finished fifth in Sunday afternoon’s 400-mile race at Dover International Speedway. Logano battled mid-race adversity, needing repairs to the nose of the Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang before fighting back for the top-five result.
• On the opening run of the race, Logano reported the Shell-Pennzoil Mustang was slightly free on entry and exit and lacked a little center turn. During the first stop of the race, the team adjusted the car with air pressure and trackbar. Logano maintained in the top-10 through the opening stage, finishing seventh.
• Over the course of the second stage, Logano reported that the tape had come off the nose of the Shell-Pennzoil Mustang, resulting in temperatures dropping and hurting the front turn. On a lap 172 caution, the team attempted to get more tape on the nose but didn’t get the full amount they wanted. The handling woes resulted in Logano falling outside the top-10. After an 18th-place result in the second stage, the team made an extended stop to work on the front grill.
• Following grill repairs, Logano reported the handling of the Shell-Pennzoil Mustang was significantly improved allowing the driver to work his way back into the top-15. Logano continued his rebound reaching the 12th position before a lap-312 caution. Logano reached the top-10 after with 60 laps remaining in the event.
• Logano would use fresher tires and adjustments in the closing laps to work forward in the field. With seven laps remaining, Logano moved into the fifth position where he’d finish the race. The top-five result seemed unlikely at the beginning of the third stage when Logano was marred in the back of the top-20.
“We’ll take a top five after everything that happened there. They did a good job fixing it. I don’t know, I hit something at some point that went through the grille and just lost a ton of downforce trying to fix that, and then we got it fixed there the last run and the Shell/Pennzoil Mustang was a rocketship and started rolling up through the field pretty nice and just ran out of time. I had the 24 in front of me and thought I could maybe get him. I’d like to have another restart and see what can happen. The boys on pit road are so good, maybe grab a couple there and a good restart and maybe the day looks a little bit different, but all things considered Jonathan Hassler did a great job up on the box recovering from a hard day. Think about the days you don’t have your crew chief and then there’s adversity. It just makes it even harder, but everyone did a great job sticking together. It shows that we have a really strong team here.”
