Pocono 400 Race Preview

• THE ROAR OF LIONS: Joey Logano admits that one of the reasons he became a racecar driver is because he wasn’t very good at other sports. However, on Tuesday afternoon, Logano got a chance to work on his football skills at the Detroit Lions training camp. Logano visited with Lions Head Coach Jim Caldwell, along with players Matthew Stafford, Reggie Bush, Calvin Johnson and several others. Logano also got a chance to do some passing and receiving with the players, as part of a promotion for the upcoming race at Michigan, where Logano won last season.
• A FORMER POCONO WINNER: Logano will return to Pocono as a former winner at the “tricky triangle.” Logano beat one of his childhood idols, Mark Martin, for the win at Pocono back in 2012, scoring his second-career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory. That day, Logano won the pole and led a race-high 49 of the 160 laps en route to the victory.
• SPECIAL GUESTS: The Shell-Pennzoil team will host a couple of special guests for the start of the Pocono 400 this weekend. Stars of the new movie “22 Jump Street” – Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill – will sit atop the pit box for the “22” team when the race goes green on Sunday.
• POCONO STATS: The three-turn Pocono Raceway has been a hit or miss track for Logano during his 10-career starts at the 2.5-mile track. In addition to his win, Logano has earned two other top-10 finishes at the track, both coming with Team Penske last season, where he finished 10th and seventh in the two races respectively. Logano has also earned two of his eight career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series poles at Pocono and has completed every lap in each of the 10 races he’s run.
• CLOSE TO HOME: Even though he spends most of the season on the road seeing the sights of the country, Greg Sorber, one of the two truck drivers for the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil team, will be close to his old hometown of Shickshinny, Pa. this weekend. Shickshinny is just 60 miles from Pocono.

DOES BEING A FORMER WINNER GIVE YOU ANY ADVANTAGE HEADING INTO POCONO THIS WEEKEND?

“It can give you a little bit of confidence knowing that you can win at the track, but really that is about all it gives you. Every single year things change so much so it’s not like you can take a lot from one year to the other. Especially this year, with the new ride height rules and the changes that we are dealing with. You really are going into the year with a blank slate. But there is still confidence knowing that you go into a track as a former winner. Every driver out there wants to win these races on every weekend, so to know that you were able to win one of these, and the way we won that race running against Mark (Martin) with just five laps to go, that’s something you will remember for the rest of your life.”

YOU HAVE NOW WON AT SEVERAL DIFFERENT TYPES OF TRACKS. DOES THAT SHOW YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO DO IT EVERYWHERE?

“I think I can do it everywhere we go. We really are only missing a restrictor-plate win and a road course win, and I think I’m capable at winning at either of those types of tracks. But I think more than anything is shows that we can do it here at Team Penske. We build great cars and we can tune them for any type of track. I’ve always felt like my strong suit was the 1.5-mile tracks, but winning earlier this year at a short track like Richmond was a big confidence booster, because that’s probably been my worst type of track over the years. But I just want to keep running well on whatever type of track that we run next. That’s always my number one goal.”