Joey Logano / No. 20 Home Depot Toyota NSCS Preview
AAA 400 benefiting Autism Speaks at Dover International Speedway
No. 20 Home Depot Toyota News & Notes:
· BACK-TO-BACK TOP-10s TO START THE CHASE: Last weekend in New Hampshire, Joey Logano picked up his second-straight top-10 finish and his 10th top-10 of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Logano raced around 15th for the first half of the race fighting a tight racecar before a great pit call by crew chief Jason Ratcliff got Logano track position and a better handling No. 20 Home Depot Toyota. Logano then raced his way in the top-10 and stayed out during a late-race caution and held off several drivers with fresher tires to grab an eighth-place finish. Logano also finished in the top-10, coming home seventh, two weekends ago at Chicagoland Speedway.
· MONSTER MILE MEMORIES: Dover International Speedway, conveniently nicknamed the “Monster Mile,” holds a bunch of memories for Logano, both good and bad. Logano wrapped up his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Championship at Dover International Speedway in 2007, capping off a remarkable and record-breaking K&N Pro Series East that saw him win seven races over the course of the season. Logano then made his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut on May 31, 2008 at Dover International Speedway, where he came home with a ninth-place start and a sixth-place finish. The 22-year-old also won July’s NASCAR Nationwide Series event at the track, his first Dover win. Logano also suffered one of the biggest accidents of his career at Dover in 2009, when he barrel-rolled his No. 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series machine a total of seven times down the banking of turns three and four and was involved in another hair-raising accident after just missing the win in last year’s summer NASCAR Nationwide Series event at the mile-track.
· 2010 CHASE ALL OVER AGAIN?: While the 2010 season didn’t result in a win or a Chase birth for Logano, the season was one of his most memorable, especially considering his strong end-of-the-season finish. Logano’s results in the 2010 Chase had a lot of people voting Joey a sure lock for the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup. In those final 10 races of 2010, Logano earned four top-five and six top-10 finishes including a run of finishes of seventh, sixth, fifth, fourth and third. When all was said and done, even though Logano wasn’t in the Chase that season, he scored the fourth most points of any driver over the final 10 races of the season. With two top-10s already this year in the first two Chase races, Logano is already looking at matching that feat.
· DOVER RESULTS IMPROVING FOR LOGANO: In seven-career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Dover International Speedway, Logano’s best race came in the fall event of 2010. That day, Logano started the race 19th but spent little time back there, getting his Home Depot Toyota into the top-10 and riding there for much of the afternoon, coming home with a fifth-place finish. Logano had a solid day at Dover earlier this year, starting 11th and coming home eighth. Logano has one other top-10, a 10th-place finish, to his credit at Dover, coming in the summer event at Dover that same season. His career-best start at Dover came in early 2011, when he qualified fifth.
· WEEKEND APPEARANCES: Joey will make several appearances during the Dover weekend. Logano’s only “public” appearance will come Friday night following the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East event when he will participate in a special edition of “Dialed In with Claire B. Lang,” live from the Rollins Center at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino. The special show benefits USO Delaware. Logano will also make hospitality appearances for Sport Clips, Toyota and Sprint during the weekend for those guests in attendance. All of Logano’s weekend and public appearances can be found on his official website, www.joeylogano.com.
· RACE INFO: The FedEx 400 benefitting Autism Speaks at Dover International Speedway (Dover, DE; 1-mile oval) is set for Sunday, June 3 at 12:30 pm ET. The race will be broadcast on FOX (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
28
1
2
10
1
190
$3,233,128
12.2
17.5
Logano’s Career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Stats:
Starts
Wins
Top 5
Top 10
Poles
Laps Led
Earnings
Avg. Start
Avg. Finish
139
2
16
39
4
337
$17,493,998
17.4
18.8
Logano’s Career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Stats at Dover International Speedway:
Starts
Wins
Top 5
Top 10
Poles
Laps Led
Earnings
Avg. Start
Avg. Finish
7
0
1
3
0
1
$842,297
16.9
19.1
From the Cockpit:
Joey Logano Quotes: “I’m pretty excited to go back to Dover. It is one of my favorite tracks on the schedule. I feel like right now, we as a team are running really well. There is really something to be said about finally going back to some of these tracks a second time with Jason (Ratcliff) as my crew chief. I think it gives him some added confidence and being able to use some of his own notes and have a better place to start with really helps us out. We ran pretty well at Dover in July and I think this time around we will be even better.
“I’ve always really enjoyed Dover. I feel like I’ve run better there over the years than our finishes have shown, but you can always say that about a certain track. I like these high-banked concrete tracks. We ran really good at Bristol a few weeks ago and led the most laps in that race. That was our second time back there and I think we could have the same about of success this weekend. I’d love to go out there and run up front all day long. I know we are capable of it.”
No. 20 Home Depot 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
