Joey Logano / No. 20 Dollar General Toyota NSCS Preview
Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway
No. 20 Dollar General Toyota News & Notes:
· HAPPY TO GET OUT OF KENTUCKY: Joey Logano and the No. 20 Dollar General team couldn’t have gotten out of Kentucky Speedway any sooner last Saturday night. Logano struggled in practice and qualifying, but crew chief Jason Ratcliff and the entire No. 20 team worked on getting Logano’s car better and better all evening long and eventually, Logano found himself in the top-10. However, it was just a few laps after breaking into the top-10 that Logano was punted from behind by another driver, sending him sliding down the track and into the side of another car. That contact folded in Logano’s left rear fender and resulted in an ill-handling car. The lack of a caution flag eventually meant Logano fell a lap down. By the time a caution came out and Ratcliff got Logano’s car fixed up, Logano drove straight into the “Lucky Dog” position but was never able to catch a final caution flag to put him back on the lead lap. Logano had to settle for a 22nd-place finish.
· IT’S A TIE: While the official Wild Card standings show Logano fourth in the race for the final two spots into the Chase for the Sprint Cup Series Championship, in reality, Logano is tied for the second and final Wild Card spot. While his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch firmly holds the first Wild Card spot, Logano is tied in points with two other drivers, each driving looking for that last Wild Card spot and each driver already with a win this season. Logano, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne remarkably each find themselves with 463 points after 17 races this season and each with one win. The tie-breaker is the next highest finish, putting Kahne ahead of Logano for that final Wild Card spot. There are still nine-more races before the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship begins.
· A RECENT DAYTONA ROLL: Logano has competed in seven NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events at Daytona International Speedway. And while his Daytona career didn’t start out all that well, the youngster is finally starting to come into his. After getting swept up in some of the multi-car accidents that are the norm on restrictor plate tracks, Logano has finished in the top-10 in his last two Daytona starts. Last summer, Logano came home third at Daytona and he followed that up with a ninth-place finish in this year’s Daytona 500.
· STARTING TO MAKE SOME REPEAT VISITS: This weekend’s event in Daytona International Speedway will mark the first “repeat” trip to a track that the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has already visited in the 2012 season. As the summer winds on and the Chase gets closer, the series will begin to make several repeat trips to tracks they have already visited this season. Those repeat trips are some of the races that Logano and Ratcliff will look forward to the most, as it will be the first chance for the duo to go into a race and use notes from a previous event that they have come up with together rather than relying on notes from the past when the two hadn’t yet worked together.
· LOOKING TO CARRY NNS SUCCESS BACK OVER TO CUP: This weekend in Daytona, Logano will be back to his “normal schedule,” competing in both the NASCAR Nationwide Series event and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at the same track on the same weekend. Logano comes into the Daytona NNS event on a roll, winning four of the last five Nationwide Series events he’s been in. He also comes in as the defending Nationwide Series race winner, where he took the checkers at Daytona a year ago.
· A LITTLE “RICK TIME” TO START THE RACE: With Dollar General being back on the side of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota this weekend, Logano will get to spend some time with the Dollar General folks in attendance, along with Chairman and CEO Rick Dreiling. However, he won’t get to spend a lot of time with Rick during pre-race, because Dreiling, an avid race fan who takes in all forms of motorsports, will get the opportunity to wave the green flag prior to the start of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona.
· THIS WEEK ON THE NO. 20 DOLLAR GENERAL TOYOTA: Dollar General vendor partners Glad, STP, Today and Always, Gildan, Pull-Ups, Airwick, Colgate, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Suave Men and Slim Jim will be featured on Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota Camry this weekend at Daytona International Speedway.
· THE RACE: The Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway (Daytona Beach, FL; 2.5-mile superspeedway) is set for Saturday night, July 7 at 6:30 pm ET. The race will be broadcast on TNT (TV) and MRN (radio).
Logano’s 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Season Stats:
Starts
Wins
Top 5
Top 10
Poles
Laps Led
Earnings
Avg. Start
Avg. Finish
17
1
1
6
1
51
$2,049,418
12.6
17.1
Logano’s Career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Stats:
Starts
Wins
Top 5
Top 10
Poles
Laps Led
Earnings
Avg. Start
Avg. Finish
128
2
15
35
4
198
$16,310,288
17.9
18.9
Logano’s Career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Stats Daytona International Speedway:
Starts
Wins
Top 5
Top 10
Poles
Laps Led
Earnings
Avg. Start
Avg. Finish
7
0
1
2
0
3
$1,715,322
21.3
20.9
From the Cockpit:
Joey Logano Quotes: “Daytona is always so much fun in the summer. The track is a lot different because of the much higher temperatures now then when we are there in February. There’s less grip and that means the cars are moving around a lot more. That leads to some fun racing but with us being back to pack racing that can also mean there are better chances for ‘the big one.’ Hopefully everyone just plays it safe and makes it to the end and we can race from there. The pack racing and the two-car racing should be interesting with the higher temperatures. It was tough to keep our cars cool in Daytona and Talladega, so things should be even crazier this weekend. We will just have to see how it all plays out.
“I feel like I’ve become a much better plate racer over the last couple of years and we are just now starting to see the results. We had a great runs in Daytona the last couple of years and we have been winning races on the Nationwide side. I feel like we had a car that could have won at Talladega earlier this year but we just got caught up with a couple of the multi-car wrecks that eventually just took us out of the running. It would really be big to get another win and try and get ourselves in even a better position for the Chase.”
No. 20 Dollar General Toyota / Joe Gibbs Racing Team:
Driver – Joey Logano Crew Chief – Jason Ratcliff Car Chief – Jason Shapiro Race Engineer – Jacob Canter Engineer – Mike Lorusso Spotter – Rocky Ryan
Shock Specialist – Dusty Boyd Mechanic – Scott Geerts Mechanic – Todd Foster Mechanic – Leo Thorsen Tire Specialist – Jerold Shires Engine Tuner – Mike Johnson
Tires – Bill Byrne Truck Driver – Thomas “Thumper” McCrimmon Truck Driver – Scott “Scooter” Crowell
Jackman – Jason Tate Gasman – John Eicher Front Tire Changer – John Royer Front Tire Carrier – Joe Crossen
Rear Tire Changer – Chris Taylor Rear Tire Carrier – Eric Groen
About Dollar General:
Dollar General Corporation has been delivering value to shoppers for more than 70 years. Dollar General helps shoppers Save time. Save money. Every day!® by offering products that are frequently used and replenished, such as food, snacks, health and beauty aids, cleaning supplies, basic apparel, house wares and seasonal items at low everyday prices in convenient neighborhood locations.
Dollar General is committed to the communities it serves and is proud to support initiatives that help others improve their lives through literacy and education. The Dollar General Literacy Foundation awards grants to nonprofit organizations that help individuals learn to read, prepare for their GED or learn to speak English.
Find the Dollar General store nearest you or learn more about the company at www.dollargeneral.com or on Dollar General’s Facebook page.
DG at the Track:
Dollar General has more retail locations than any retailer in America, with 10,000 stores in 39 states. There are 11 Dollar General locations in the Daytona Beach area.
Dollar General #1350 Dollar General #12460 Dollar General #11501
894 N. Nova Rd. 2112 South Atlantic Ave. 601 Ridgewood Ave.
Daytona Beach, FL 32117 Daytona Beach Shores, FL 32118 Daytona Beach, FL 32117
Dollar General #1128 Dollar General #12968 Dollar General #11887
2016 S. Ridgewood Ave. 1800 N. Nova Rd. 3741 S Clyde Morris Blvd.
South Daytona, FL 32119 Holly Hill, FL 32117 Port Orange, FL 32129
Dollar General #11420 Dollar General #1474 Dollar General #7468
145 N. Yonge St. 3861 S. Nova Rd. 1462 W. Granada Blvd. Ste. 2
Ormond Beach, FL 32174 Port Orange, FL 32127 Ormond Beach, FL 32174
Dollar General #11493 Dollar General #11207
5420 S Ridgewood Ave. 1550 Ocean Shore Blvd.
Port Orange, FL 32127 Ormond Beach, FL 32176
