Joey Logano / No. 18 GameStop Toyota Preview
Wypall 200 at Phoenix International Raceway
No. 18 GameStop Toyota News, Notes & Paint Scheme:
· LOGANO BACK IN No. 18, LOOKING FOR POINTS: Joey Logano will be back in the GameStop Toyota this weekend at Phoenix International Speedway. However, he won’t be in his familiar No. 20. Instead, for the fourth time this year, Logano will be back behind the wheel of the No. 18 in an effort to help the Joe Gibbs Racing organization win their fourth-straight NASCAR Nationwide Series Owner’s Championship and third-straight for the No. 18 group. The hunt for the Owner’s Championship is down to two teams, the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team and the No. 60 Roush Fenway team. The No. 18 team holds a slim two-point lead over the No. 60 with just two races remaining on the schedule. While Logano takes the reins of the No. 18 this weekend, Ryan Truex will be making his final start of the year in the No. 20 Toyota.
· CALL OF DUTY®: MODERN WARFARE 3 MAKES A RARE “SECOND APPEARANCE”: Proving that Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare 3 is one of the most highly-anticipated video games of the year, the franchise’s most recent entry will make a rare “second” appearance on the GameStop Toyota this weekend. The best-selling first person action series of all-time returns with the epic sequel to multiple Game of the Year award winner, Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare 2. Prepare yourself for a cinematic thrill-ride as only Call of Duty can deliver. Engage enemy forces in New York, Paris, Berlin and other attack sites across the globe. Special Ops returns with a bevy of additions, including 16 new objective-based missions and the all-new Survival Mode. Team up online, locally, or play solo and face endless waves of attacking enemies throughout every multiplayer map. Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare 3 hit store shelves Nov. 8 and is available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Only two other games have ever been featured on the GameStop Toyota for more than one race: Red Dead Redemption and NASCAR 2011.
· PHOENIX A FAVORITE FOR LOGANO: While victory has eluded Logano at Phoenix International Raceway over the years in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, it’s been a good track for the 21-year-old. In five career starts at the track, Logano has never finished outside of the top-10, including a near-race win in the spring race of 2010 when Logano found himself leading late, but contact with another car damaged the right front of his Toyota and forced him to slide through the field on a final race to the checkers. Logano won the pole for the fall Phoenix event last year and led 23 laps before coming home in third. Not counting his rookie season of 2008, Logano has not qualified outside of the top-six at Phoenix. Logano also has two top-10 finishes in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Phoenix and was en route to a third in the spring race before his engine let go midway through the event.
· RETURN TO RATCLIFF: Jason Ratcliff and the regular team will welcome Logano back to the No. 18 Toyota this weekend in Phoenix. The weekend will mark the third time Ratcliff and Logano have worked together as crew chief/driver pairing. The first came at Michigan International Speedway during Logano’s rookie season of 2008. The two then worked together earlier this season at Kansas, where Logano finished seventh. Ratcliff has a strong history at Phoenix, earning three wins and six top 10s at the track as a crew chief.
· CHASSIS: The JGR team will bring proven race-winning chassis #109 to Phoenix this weekend. That chassis has raced three times this season and won all three events, all with Busch behind the wheel. The chassis ran at the first Phoenix event and both Bristol events.
· STAT OF THE WEEK: 3 Million. With Logano’s eighth-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway and his $18,195 payday, Logano earned his way into the $3 million career-earnings club in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
· THE RACE: The Wypall 200 at Phoenix International Raceway (Avondale, AZ; 1-mile tri-oval) is set for Saturday afternoon, November 12, 2011. The race will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 3:30 p.m. ET, with radio coverage on MRN starting at 3 p.m. ET.
Joey Logano Quotes:
“I’m pretty excited about Phoenix. I’ve always been fortunate enough to run strong there, and I’ve always felt like whenever I’ve been there, I’ve been in contention to fight for the win. There are a lot of tracks that for one reason or another drivers say owe them a win. I don’t always think that, but I can think of a couple of times at Phoenix where I think we had the best car and were able to lead laps and things went down and we weren’t able to win the race. But, I’ve never finished outside of the top 10 there, so I’m pretty fortunate for that. I’m also excited to get another chance to work with Jason (Ratcliff) this weekend. I know he’s got a ton of experience, and he’s got a good track record at Phoenix. I have a pretty good feeling going into this weekend.
“Phoenix is going to be a lot different this time. No one really knows what the track will be like since they redid it earlier this year. Thankfully, I was one of the drivers who got the opportunity to go out there and test during the open test and got to make some laps. While the layout is similar with the dogleg on the backstretch though, the way it’s been moved back does change your entry and exit a little bit. I think the biggest thing for us to deal with though will be whether a second groove will come in. When we get on the track the first time, the track will be one groove like it was during the test. Hopefully though, during the weekend, with all of the laps the Nationwide and Cup cars will put on the track, we can get a second groove in. If we can, I think the track will be a lot of fun and put on some pretty good racing. It’s always been a fun track to drive; probably one of the best on the schedule.
“It will be cool to run the Call of Duty car again this weekend as well. GameStop always has some great games featured on the car and some really cool paint schemes, and I love the black and green car and suits we have for the weekend. It looks sick. I’m pretty excited to get a chance to play the game as well. I know there are a lot of people excited for that game to come out this week and they’ve got a bunch of midnight openings all around the country. Hopefully everyone can take a break from playing to watch us race on Saturday at least.”
No. 18 GameStop Toyota / Joe Gibbs Racing Team
Driver – Joey Logano Crew Chief – Jason Ratcliff Car Chief – Charlie Brock
Race Engineer – Matt Lucas Shock Specialist – Brad Rothlin Front-end Mechanic – Todd Brewer
Rear-end Mechanic – Jason Clements Tire Specialist – Matt Sauer Setup Specialist – Kevin Kelley
Engine Tuner – Chris Woodward Truck Driver – Dennis Valverde
