Joey Logano / No. 20 GameStop Toyota Preview
Feed the Children 300 at Kentucky Speedway
No. 20 GameStop Toyota News, Notes & Paint Scheme:
• THE KING OF KENTUCKY RETURNS… BATTING 1.000 : Joey will return to his most successful racetrack on the NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule, Kentucky Speedway. In baseball terms, Logano is batting 1,000 at Kentucky Speedway in every single stat category. In three career starts at the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway, Logano has raced his way to three poles and three victories. In those three victories, Logano has led 202 total laps. The first victory back in 2008 put Logano on the map with both competitors and fans. Coming in just his third-career start, Logano became the youngest NASCAR Nationwide Series winner ever at the young age of 18 years and 21 days. Logano came back then and won the race again in 2009, leading just 20 laps and passing teammate Kyle Busch late. Then, last year, he completed the trifecta, dominating the event by leading 106 laps en route to his third-straight victory.
• LOGANO WANTS TO KEEP A KENTUCKY “WIPEOUT” LIMITED TO HIS CAR: It’s a favorite game show of many people these days, including Joey Logano himself. It features spills, thrills and plenty of laughs. It’s ABC’s Wipeout. And the video game version will hopefully bring some thrills without the spills at Kentucky Speedway. Wipeout: In the Zone for the Xbox 360’s Kinect system will be the featured game on the No. 20 GameStop Toyota for the Feed the Children 300. Released on June 14th, Wipeout In the Zone features over 30 outrageous obstacles that will test players’ limits in more ridiculous ways than ever. Players can try to run the entire course in one shot, conquering one challenge after another, such as leaping over a pool of water using the infamous “Big Balls” and maneuvering their players to avoid being pummeled by the “Smack Wall Sweeper.” Once again featuring the talents and hilarious commentary of the show’s hosts, Wipeout In the Zone will bring hours upon hours of fun and laughter for the entire family.
• LOOKING FOR FOUR IN A ROW…OR IS THAT FIVE IN A ROW?: This weekend, Logano will not be looking for his fourth-straight win at Kentucky Speedway. In fact, he’ll be looking for his fifth-straight. Logano raced at the track back when he was just 12 years old in the Young Lions Nationals for Legends cars on the quarter-mile track that utilizes part of the infield and part of pit road. Despite never being to at the track before, Logano won the event, becoming the youngest Young Lions Nationals winner ever. Therefore, Logano has won all four events he’s ever competed in at Kentucky Speedway.
• RIDING HIGH FOLLOWING DAYTONA WIN: Logano and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team are on a hot streak right now, coming off the team’s second win of the season (and Logano’s first Nationwide Series win since last season at Kansas) last weekend in Daytona. Logano, who called the win the biggest of his career in any division he’s ever raced, used a push from JGR teammate Kyle Busch to score his first restrictor-plate victory, leading only the final lap. The win, coupled with Logano’s last few runs in the Sprint Cup Series (pole and sixth-place finish in Sonoma, third-place finish at Daytona) has the 21-year-old’s confidence soaring. It also has the team’s confidence soaring with the problems they had to overcome at Daytona, including a broken clutch in qualifying, a spin early in the race and an unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel. Despite all the problems, Logano and the team never backed down and was able to grab the win.
• DOUBLE DUTY… WITHOUT THE TRAVEL: This will be the third year in a row that Logano will compete at Kentucky Speedway while pulling double duty and racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series as well on the same weekend. In the past, he’s traveled back and forth between Kentucky and Michigan. This year however, the Sprint Cup Series will make their debut at Kentucky Speedway, racing Saturday night.
• CHASSIS: The JGR team will take chassis #20108 to Kentucky Speedway. That chassis has raced three times already in 2011 at Vegas (seventh-place finish), Texas (fourth-place) and Darlington (second-place). Chassis #20121 will serve as the team’s backup.
• STAT OF THE WEEK: 141.1 Logano’s driver rating at Kentucky is a stellar 141.1. The next closest driver is that of JGR teammate Kyle Busch, who has a driver rating of 130.7 at Kentucky Speedway. Driver rating formula combines wins, finishes, top-15 finishes, average running position while on lead lap, average speed under green, fastest lap, led most laps and lead-lap finishes.
• THE RACE: The Feed the Children 300 at Kentucky Speedway (Sparta, KY; 1.5-mile oval) is set for Friday, July 8, 2011. The race will be broadcast on ESPN at 7:30 p.m. EST, with radio coverage on PRN starting at 7 p.m. EST.
Logano’s 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series Season Stats:
Starts Wins Top 5 Top 10 Poles Laps Led Earnings Avg. Start Avg. Finish
11 1 5 8 1 90 $314,735 7.9 6.5
Logano’s Career NASCAR Nationwide Series Stats:
Starts Wins Top 5 Top 10 Poles Laps Led Earnings Avg. Start Avg. Finish
77 9 38 62 16 1437 $2,848,939 7.3 7.0
Logano’s Career NASCAR Nationwide Series Stats at Kentucky Speedway:
Starts Wins Top 5 Top 10 Poles Laps Led Earnings Avg. Start Avg. Finish
3 3 3 3 3 202 $44,553 1.0 1.0
Joey Logano Quotes:
“I’m pretty pumped to get back to Kentucky, for obvious reasons of course. Kentucky has really felt like a second home to me over the last couple of years in the Nationwide Series. We’ve had pretty good success there. People ask me all of the time why we have been so good and I don’t really know what to say about that. I’ve turned a lot of laps on that track between all of the testing we did there in the Cup cars and in all of the Nationwide races there. But I don’t necessarily feel any more comfortable there than I do at some other tracks that we go to. I guess really I just know what the track is going to do as the race goes on and how to handle the bumps there. There is something said about having laps at a track I guess.
“I also get asked about the streak there a lot. I try not to think about it too much and treat going to Kentucky like I treat going to any other race that we go to. But then again, it’s pretty cool when you look at it to be able to say you’ve won three-straight races at the same track and you’ve won all of them from the pole. Not a lot of people can say something like that. And last year, Kentucky was where we got our first win of the season so there was a lot of pressure on us to win that race. Now that we’ve got that out of the way with our win at Daytona last weekend, we can go into Kentucky with a little extra momentum and have even more confidence that we can win again. I know I’m going to give it my all and all of the guys on the team want to be a part of winning four-straight.
“I’m think it’s pretty cool to have Wipeout on the car. I love that game show on TV. It is crazy. I would love to be on that show one of these times. Maybe one day they will have a celebrity show and I can get an invite. I’m pretty excited to try it out on the Kinect though. It will be fun to run the course but not get hurt, although when I play Kinect with some of my friends, it can get pretty physical. We’ve brought a lot of cool looking cars to Victory Lane at Kentucky. Hopefully, we can do that again this year.”
Adam Stevens Quotes:
“Kentucky is going to be a cool race because of all the tracks we go to, it will be the closest to home for me. It’s about 140 miles away from my hometown of Portsmith, OH. I’ve got some family coming to the race, so that is always a little added incentive to do well. And they couldn’t be coming to a better track with Joey’s track record at Kentucky. Three races and three wins is pretty impressive, but that also puts a little added pressure on us because we know everyone’s eyes are going to be on us to be the car to beat. And we also really want to keep the streak going as well. It would be pretty impressive to make it four-in-a-row.
“The big difference about this year though is that we will be going to the track with the new Nationwide Series car for the first time, so things will be a little different for us and for Joey. Because of that, we can’t go off of the notes of the past there, as far as setup and the car itself. We will just have to go off of more of our notes from this year. Really, you can compare Kentucky to any of the intermediate tracks that we run on. It has a lot of bumps which can change some things, but for the most part, other notes can give you a good baseline. You can still look at the past notes as far as how the track changes, what kinds of changes were made to the car and such. There is always something you can pull off of old notes.”
No. 20 GameStop Toyota / Joe Gibbs Racing Team
Driver – Joey Logano Crew Chief – Adam Stevens Car Chief – Mike Sibley
Race Engineer – Curtis Ratzlaff Shock Specialist – Joel Weidman Front-end – Nick Fuller
Rear-end – Dave Rudy Tire Specialist – Chris “Yoshi” Jones Engine Tuner – Roger Purcell
Truck Driver – Tim Clancy Jackman – Jason Tate Gasman – John Eicher
Front Tire Changer – John Royer Front Tire Carrier – Brett Morrell
Rear Tire Changer – Coleman Dollarhide Rear Tire Carrier – Eric Groen
