Start: 10th |  Finish: 5th  | Points: 14th

Stage One: 7th  |  Stage Two: 9th 

Joey Logano wheeled the Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang to a fifth-place finish Sunday at Pocono Raceway, marking his fourth top-five finish of the season. Logano battled a loose-handling condition throughout the 30-lap opening stage but rallied to come away with a seventh-place finish in Stage 1. After opting to stay out during the stage break, Logano assumed the lead and restarted the second segment from the outside of row one but was shuffled out of line in turn one before settling into 10^th in the running order. Despite reporting a tight condition while in traffic, Logano began to make his way back up through the field in the closing laps of Stage 2 as the No. 22 team altered its strategy to go opposite of the leaders who hit pit road prior to the end of the stage. Ultimately, Logano notched a ninth-place finish in the second segment before a four tire stop under caution prior to the start of the final stage saw Logano line up 12^th to take the green flag. After making his way back into the top-10, a caution with 45 laps to go prompted crew chief Paul Wolfe to make the call for right side tires only when pit road opened while several speeding penalties ahead vaulted Logano to fourth in the running order before going back green. Three cautions over the next 12 laps aided the 22 team’s fuel strategy as Logano shifted his focus to making it to the end without the need for an additional stop as he lined up fourth with 23 laps to go. Logano went on to maintain top-five pace the rest of the way before taking the checkered flag fifth.

“Overall, a top-five, you have to be somewhat happy with that. We had speed there toward the end of the race and I think we could have run in the top two. I don’t know if we could have been better than Ryan [Blaney] or not, but it just took us too long to get the balance right. Once we got the track position and the balance close, I about wrecked it on the restart. Those spots there kind of ultimately cost us a chance to win it, but overall I am proud of the speed that we brought to a track like this. It makes me look forward to Indy a little bit more where we have some long straightaways again and it seemed like our car was decent on the straightaways this time.”

WHAT’S NEXT: The NASCAR Cup Series makes its return to the oval at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 21. Coverage of the Brickyard 400 begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, IMS Radio Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.