Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion overcame a tough weekend and used a strong pit strategy to earn his ninth top-five finish of the season, coming home fifth on Sunday at Sonoma Raceway. Logano started the race in the 19th position and dropped back as far as 26th while fighting a car early that had no drive off the corner, the same problem the team dealt with all weekend long. Crew chief Todd Gordon played his pre-race pit strategy perfectly, bringing Logano into the pits on lap 23. As is normal with road course racing, teams throughout the field were on a number of different pit strategies, allowing Logano to cycle his way up to fourth at one point. Eventually, cautions flew and Logano was able to become a regular fixture inside the top-five. Late in the race, Logano was able to hold off several drivers on fresher tires until a caution flew with just 10 laps to go, bringing nearly the entire field to pit road. With just eight laps left, Logano restarted the race in the eighth position and was able to make up three spots as the checkers flew, coming home fifth. It was Logano’s first-career top-five finish at Sonoma and kept him third in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings, 57 points behind leader Kevin Harvick.
“Todd did a good job and got me some track position and got the car running pretty good. We struggled all weekend and got something decent. Once we started running I thought, ‘We’re not that slow.’ We made some adjustments and started getting closer and got a top-five out of it. We’ll take that. I think it’s our third top-five in a row and they’ve all been hard fought. We learned some things to make us better the next time, so I think that’s the biggest thing to come out of today.”