Box Score Info:
RACE: Food City 250
TRACK: Bristol Motor Speedway
DRIVER: Joey Logano
CAR: No. 18 Dollar General Toyota
START: 2nd
FINISH: 1st (15th-career NASCAR Nationwide Series win)
LAPS: 250/250 (running)
LAPS LED: 81
Post Race Highlights:
· Joey Logano qualified his No. 18 Dollar General Toyota second for Friday night’s Food City 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway
· A late-afternoon thunder storm canceled NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying and delayed the start of the Nationwide Series event, leaving drivers and crew chiefs wondering what the “green” track would be like.
· At the drop of the green flag, Logano quickly jumped out to the lead from his outside front row starting position. Logano led the field for the first 35 laps.
· Crew chief Adam Stevens made a surprise move and called Logano to the pits on lap 36, giving up the top spot. With a competition caution coming just a few laps later, Stevens made the move hoping to get fresh tires and track position. The move worked out as after the competition caution, Logano moved from 26th up to third.
· All night long, it was evident that the high line was the preferred groove, however, Logano’s No. 18 Dollar General Toyota proved strong running down low as well.
· After running in the top-five, Logano found himself back in the lead on lap 106 and led for 11 more laps before another round of pit stops and varying pit strategy.
· When everything shook out, Logano was running second behind Kevin Harvick and the two drivers distanced themselves from the rest of the field.
· Logano and Harvick ran side-by-side lap-after-lap and put on a great show. Eventually, on lap 216, Logano was able to get under Harvick and use a lapped car as a “pick” to grab the lead. Once getting into the lead, Logano began to distance himself on the field.
· Logano was able to survive several late-race restarts and held the top spot for the rest of the night, picking up his first-career NASCAR Nationwide Series victory at Bristol Motor Speedway and his sixth victory of the season.
· The win was Logano’s 15th-career NASCAR Nationwide Series victory. Logano has now won five of his six races this season driving the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
· The win was crew chief Adam Stevens’ eighth-career Nationwide Series victory.
· The No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota extended its lead in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Owner’s point standings. The No. 18 team now has a 13-point advantage over the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing machine and a 32-point lead over the No. 6 of Roush-Fenway Racing
· With the win, Dollar General customers will receive 20-percent off their entire online order at DollarGeneral.com this Monday. Offer is good only online at DollarGeneral.com and only this coming Monday.
Logano’s Post-Race Thoughts:
“Man, it feels like it’s been a long time coming, but we finally got a victory here at Bristol. There are a lot of tracks that I’d like to win at, like all of them, but this is one of those places where I’ve always wanted to win and we’ve been so close over the years. We should have won this race last year and we should have won here in the spring. Now, we can leave here and say we are Bristol winners. That is a great feeling. To win at Darlington, Talladega, Dover and Bristol all in the same year is pretty cool. Those are some pretty tough tracks right there. That just goes to show you how strong this Joe Gibbs Racing team is and how good Adam Stevens (crew chief) and all of the guys on this team are. They are the best in the garage.
“It was also really cool to finally get a win with all of the Dollar General people here in attendance. Rick Dreiling and his whole group were finally here for a win. This is the fourth win we’ve got for them this year and this is the first time they’ve been here to celebrate with us. They are a huge supporter of mine and of this entire organization and this program. So to get to see their reaction to things down there in Victory Lane was pretty special.
“We had a great car all night long. It is just very hard to pass here now. The car on the top in the outside lane just has a much better run and if you are on the inside you just can’t get them. You need to work and work and work. And that was with a car that was really good down low. You almost had to just time your passes with the lapped cars. That is what we did tonight and it worked out. I knew we were faster than the 33 and once we got by him, it was just a case of hitting my marks and getting to the finish. Now, we just need to keep this momentum going over to Saturday night.”
