No. 20 Home Depot / Red Beacon Toyota News & Notes:
· WELCOMING RED BEACON TO THE HOME DEPOT TOYOTA: This weekend, the familiar orange Home Depot colors will be replaced with a new red No. 20 on the track. Redbeacon will join The Home Depot as primary sponsors of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and driver Joey Logano this weekend at Martinsville, as well as the remaining races at Texas and Homestead. Redbeacon, a fully owned subsidiary of The Home Depot, is a free online and mobile resource for consumers seeking reliable home-service professionals. By simply requesting a service such as a maid, plumber, electrician, painter and more at redbeacon.com or through Redbeacon’s iPhone and Android apps, consumers receive competitive price quotes from qualified local pros in their area. Redbeacon service providers compete for the business, which saves consumers both time and money. Customers complete an online or mobile form that includes what home service they need, key details about the size and scope of the job, and when and where they need the job done. Redbeacon’s home-service matching system taps into its network of qualified local pros and checks their availability. Customers choose from up to four competitive quotes for the project and book the chosen professional on redbeacon.com or through the mobile apps. To ensure that each customer is satisfied, Redbeacon backs every job up to $1,000 with its Home Service Guarantee.
· DISAPPOINTING FINISH AT KANSAS DESPITE STRONG OVERALL WEEKEND: When you look at Logano’s weekend at Kansas Speedway, things were going real well for the 22-year-old; at least until you look at the final results on Sunday. Throughout the long Kansas weekend, which included Sprint Cup Series testing on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as a regular race-weekend program Friday through Sunday, Logano and the No. 20 JGR team were consistently one of the fastest cars on the track. Logano was in the top-10 in all the testing sessions and practice sessions and then qualified eighth for Sunday’s race. In Saturday’s Nationwide Series race, Logano won the pole and finished third despite getting in a mid-race accident. However on Sunday, with much warmer temperatures than the teams had experienced all weekend long, Logano and the No. 20 team struggled with the handling on the car. They fought a tight condition all afternoon long, one they could not work out of the car, and finished 19th.
· LAST SINGLE-DUTY WEEKEND: This weekend, Logano will take full advantage of what will be his last “off weekend” of the season. Not that Logano isn’t racing at Martinsville; but that this will be the last weekend where Logano will be performing “single-duty” instead of “double-duty” at the race track. With the NASCAR Nationwide Series having their last “off weekend” of the year, Logano will get a chance to focus just on his Sprint Cup Series ride this weekend. In the last three races of the season after Martinsville, at Texas, Phoenix and Homestead, Logano will be running in both the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series events.
· 2010 ALL OVER AGAIN AT MARTINSVILLE: To Joey Logano, 2010 was a banner year in his career at the half-mile, paperclip-shaped Martinsville Speedway. Logano came “oh-so-close” to a win at Martinsville in the spring race of that year, finishing second to his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin. Logano was running in the top-five late and took advantage of contact between two other cars to grab second. Unfortunately, laps ran out and Logano had to settle for the runner-up position. That same season, Logano finished sixth in the fall event at Martinsville, marking his two best career-finishes at the track. His career-best qualifying effort at Martinsville is fourth, which he did in the spring race last season.
· RACE INFO: The Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway (Martinsville, VA; .5-mile oval) is set for Sunday, October 28 at 1 pm ET. The race will be broadcast on ESPN (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
32
1
2
12
1
190
$3,610,138
12.3
17.5
Logano’s Career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Stats:
Starts
Wins
Top 5
Top 10
Poles
Laps Led
Earnings
Avg. Start
Avg. Finish
143
2
16
41
4
337
$17,871,008
17.3
18.7
Logano’s Career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Stats at Martinsville Speedway:
Starts
Wins
Top 5
Top 10
Poles
Laps Led
Earnings
Avg. Start
Avg. Finish
7
0
1
2
0
0
$765,792
16.6
15.1
From the Cockpit:
Joey Logano Quotes: “After a frustrating weekend in Kansas, I’m pretty excited to get back to a short track and do some real beating and banging. The thing most people don’t remember though is that even though you are at Martinsville and you are on a track that doesn’t require downforce like the intermediate tracks and such, you still need to have a really good handling car to get through the corners at Martinsville and to be competitive. You need to be able to roll the corners and get back on the gas. Getting off the corners is key at Martinsville with the long straightaways. If you can’t get off the corners, you are going to let someone get under you and when they get under you, likely you are going to get freight-trained by a bunch of cars all lined up on the bottom. So you still have to work on having a really good handling car.
“We struggled a bit at Martinsville in the spring, but it was Jason’s (Ratcliff, crew chief) first time there with a Cup car and only our sixth or seventh race working together. I think we will be much better this time around. We’ve been working really well together and we’ve got a lot more notes to go off of than we had way back early in the season. So I think we will be good. I love going there and beating and banging. Most of us grew up on the short tracks and racing door-to-door and slamming our way to the front. It makes for good racing most of the time. We will see how it is this weekend. I just need to finish one position better than I did a couple of years ago.”
No. 20 Home Depot / Red Beacon 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
