Joey Logano / No. 20 GameStop Toyota Preview – Top Gear 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway
No. 20 GameStop Toyota News, Notes & Paint Scheme:
· LOGANO HOPES TO “KONGREGATE” HIS TEAM IN VICTORY LANE AT CMS: This weekend, the No. 20 GameStop Toyota will carry the colors of online gaming hub Kongregate for the Top Gear 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Kongregate is a leading browser-based game site with over 13 million monthly unique visitors who spend more than 23 million hours playing per month. As part of the GameStop Corporation network, the site features a unique community and social platform including achievements, profiles, chat, messaging, forums, and levels, which unifies more than 40,000 totally free games into a cohesive and addicting experience. Based in San Francisco, CA, Kongregate was founded in 2007 by brother-and-sister team Jim Greer, a game industry veteran, and Emily Greer, an interactive marketing executive.
· LOGANO TO BE FEATURED ON CNN: While in town this weekend for the Charlotte races, Logano will film a show with CNN at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield will be filming her show called “Face to Face” with Logano and several other of NASCAR up-and-coming stars. Whitfield, a weekend anchor on CNN, has hosted the “Face to Face” interview series and sat down with a number of high-profile celebrities, including Ted Turner, Russell Simmons and Salman Rushdie. Whitfield herself had the idea to do a show on NASCAR’s up-and-coming drivers, including Logano. As part of the show, Whitfield will also partake in a ride-along at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Airdate for the show has not yet been set, but will be later in the summer.
· THE BIGGEST RACE TO WIN? CMS OF COURSE: Charlotte Motor Speedway stands as a “home race” for most of the NASCAR Nationwide Series teams. That is no different for Joe Gibbs Racing and Logano. Being a home track for a majority of the teams, Charlotte easily stands as one of the most important races to win all year long on the Nationwide Series schedule. Logano has had mixed success at Charlotte in the Nationwide Series. Dating back to his first race at the track in 2008, Logano has three top-five finishes in five starts. Outside of those top-five finishes, Logano has two 14th-place finishes. Logano has also led laps in four of the five events at Charlotte that he’s participated in.
· CHASSIS: The JGR team will take chassis #20124 to Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend. This is the first time this chassis will hit the track in 2011. Chassis #20121 will serve as the team’s backup.
· STAT OF THE WEEK: 33. Logano’s DNF at Dover International Speedway broke a streak of 33-straight races for Logano in the NASCAR Nationwide Series of running at the end of the race. Before the last-lap accident at Dover, Logano’s last DNF was at Texas Motor Speedway back in late 2009.
· THE RACE: The Top Gear 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway (Concord, NC; 1.5-mile oval) is set for Saturday, May 28, 2011. The race will be broadcast on ABC at 2:30 p.m. EST, with radio coverage on PRN starting at 2 p.m. EST.
Logano’s 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series Season Stats: Starts Wins Top 5 Top 10 Poles Laps Led Earnings Avg. Start Avg. Finish 8 0 4 6 1 89 $207,560 6.1 6.6
Logano’s Career NASCAR Nationwide Series Stats: Starts Wins Top 5 Top 10 Poles Laps Led Earnings Avg. Start Avg. Finish 74 8 37 60 16 1436 $2,741,764 7.1 7.0
Logano’s Career NASCAR Nationwide Series Stats at Charlotte Motor Speedway: Starts Wins Top 5 Top 10 Poles Laps Led Earnings Avg. Start Avg. Finish 5 0 3 3 0 67 $139,143 8.6 8.0
Joey Logano Quotes: “Charlotte is probably one of the most important races to win each year on the Nationwide Series schedule because it is a home track for all of us. We all have particular tracks around the country that we call our ‘home track’ but Charlotte is where most of us live now and where all of the shops are. And because of that, there are always a lot of guests and people from the teams that to come to the track on race weekend that don’t normally get to see us race when we are traveling. So to win at Charlotte is something that is pretty important to every driver out there. I know I really want to get a win there too.
“Charlotte is also probably my favorite track. It’s just a great place to race, and I’ve been lucky enough to have been pretty good there over the years. Last year, we finished third and fourth in our two Nationwide Series races at Charlotte after only getting one top-five run there in my first three races, so I’ve learned a lot about the place. Another bonus about this weekend’s race is that it’s the second race with the new Nationwide Series car at Charlotte, so we’ve already got a few notes based on last year’s race there. We are not starting from scratch on what these new cars handle like. So that should be a big positive for us and for the No. 20 GameStop team.
“I’m also pretty pumped to get back behind the wheel of the GameStop car this weekend because the No. 20 team has a ton of momentum right now. They got a win at Richmond with Denny (Hamlin) and ran well at Darlington, then we almost came back to win the race at Dover, where we had the best car for sure. And last weekend in Iowa, they ran strong even though they didn’t quite have the finish they should have. So we’ve got a lot going for us now and I really don’t know if there is a better overall team in the Nationwide Series right now.”
Adam Stevens Quotes: “I’m pretty excited about the weekend, because Joey is good at Charlotte and I think the guys like Joey, Kyle, Carl and others are going to have an advantage after racing in the All Star race last weekend. The biggest thing about the race this year is the new tire combination that we’ll have going into the race. There seems to be a lot more grip than last year and you could see that watching the All Star race last weekend. The Cup cars were really fast.
“Another thing we learned from watching the All Star race is that it’s going to be a track position race for sure. You would need to come up with a strategy that is going to put you out front or near the front. It’s going to be very hard to pass. I expect the setup stuff to be similar to Texas, and we ran strong there and learned a lot of things about these new cars. Plus, we’ve got some notes to go off of from last year’s race at Charlotte where they ran the new car. Of course, it’s always nice to be home for a weekend as well.”
No. 20 GameStop Toyota / Joe Gibbs Racing Team
Driver – Joey Logano Crew Chief – Adam Stevens Car Chief – Mike Sibley Race Engineer – Curtis Ratzlaff Shock Specialist – Joel Weidman Front-end – Nick Fuller Rear-end – Dave Rudy Tire Specialist – Chris “Yoshi” Jones Engine Tuner – Roger Purcell Truck Driver – Tim Clancy Jackman – Jason Tate Gasman – John Eicher Front Tire Changer – John Royer Front Tire Carrier – Brett Morrell Rear Tire Changer – Coleman Dollarhide Rear Tire Carrier – Eric Groen
