· Joey Logano started eighth in the No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Fusion in Sunday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Logano’s Pennzoil Ford Fusion paid tribute to Steve Park, racing the yellow and black scheme his fellow New Englander did during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

· Logano moved from the eighth position into the top-five within the opening four laps. Throughout the first run, Logano reported the Pennzoil Ford was building tighter, a condition crew chief Todd Gordon had anticipated occurring as the team had prepared for nighttime conditions.

· On the first pit stop of the race at lap 48, the team made a four-tire stop adding only fuel with no further adjustments made. During the second run, Logano reported the car had started to free up, and at times, ran consecutive laps faster than the race leader, maintaining the fourth position. Through the second run, Logano’s car took two steps to the free side, prompting an air pressure adjustment on the second stop of the race. Quick pit work netted the 22 team one position leaving pit road, lining Logano up in the third position to begin the second stage.

· Through the first run of the second stage, Logano reported he was loose all around the speedway so the team elected to make a wedge adjustment on the third stop. However, a miscommunication on the call led to the adjustment going the wrong direction, positioning Logano for a fight until the next pit stop.

· At lap 155, Todd Gordon called the No. 22 Pennzoil Ford to pit lane while running fourth, for two rounds of wedge and an air pressure adjustment, kicking off a cycle of green flag pit stops. As anticipated, Logano battled loose, but was able to maintain his track position.

· With pitting at lap 247, Logano was able to use his fresh tires to close the gap to the race leaders, who pitted almost 20 laps later, cycling the No. 22 Pennzoil Ford to the race lead with 106 laps remaining.

· The No. 22 Pennzoil Ford team continued to operate on a strategy opposite the race leader. When the caution flag was displayed on lap 312, Logano, Larson and Keselowski were the only cars on the lead lap because the yellow fell during a cycle of green flag pit stops.

· The race began to turn into a short-run affair thanks to three cautions over the final 54 laps. A caution flag with 23 laps remaining would bring Logano back to pit road for four tires and an air pressure adjustment to help with a loose handling Pennzoil Ford Fusion.

· With several late race restarts, Logano would claim the second position, helping to secure the Team Penske 1-2 sweep with teammate Brad Keselowski.

 

“We had a good car. We were like a third-place car and whether it was a short run or a long run it didn’t really matter. We made some adjustments there at the end to take off a little bit better, but I didn’t get by the 42 in time to try to run down the 2. We were just matching lap times, so I couldn’t catch him enough. I was just hoping lap traffic would screw it up enough to try to catch him, but one-two for Team Penske, that’s pretty cool. Brad sweeping the weekend, that’s awesome for him to do at Darlington. That’s no easy feat, so congratulations to them. I just keep going back to two restarts to the end. I didn’t have the best of restarts and if I got to second our pit stop was good enough to get us to the lead and give us control and that’s what ultimately won Brad the race was his pit crew that got him out in the lead. Once he was out in the lead, he was going to be hard to catch. I had a lot of fun on the Throwback Weekend. It’s really cool to drive Steve Park’s car and give it a good run. I wish I got to celebrate with him in Victory Lane and hold up the 1 that he used to drive.”