Joey Logano / No. 20 GameStop Toyota Preview
Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway
No. 20 GameStop Toyota News, Notes & Paint Scheme:
· LOGANO LOOKING FOR DUEL JGR BURNOUTS IN HOMESTEAD: Joey Logano has had the chance before. In his rookie season of 2008, the youngster took part in a duel burnout celebration with then NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion Clint Bowyer when Logano piloted the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to a 10th-place finish and a clinch of the 2008 Nationwide Series Owner’s Championship. This weekend, Logano hopes to partake in a duel burnout situation at Homestead once again. This time however, he hopes his burnout is the result of a checkered flag win for the No. 20 GameStop Toyota in the season-finale Nationwide Series event, while the other burnout is that of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin in the No. 18 JGR Toyota, clinching what would be the team’s fourth-straight Nationwide Series Owner’s Championship. Logano’s fourth-place finish last week in Phoenix behind the wheel of the No. 18 GameStop Toyota means the No. 18 team holds a one-point lead over the No. 60 heading into the season-finale this weekend at Homestead.
· PDP AND AFTERGLOW HOPE TO “LIGHT UP” HOMESTEAD EVENING: Performance Designed Products (PDP) and its Afterglow brand of video game controllers will ride along with the No. 20 GameStop Toyota this weekend in Homestead. PDP is an industry leader in designing and manufacturing products for all major video game platforms including the Sony PS2, PS3, PSP, Nintendo DS and Wii, and Microsoft Xbox 360, as well as a line of accessories for the Apple iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, and Android-based phones. The company has been supplying video game accessories to the U.S. market for more than a decade. PDP’s AFTERGLOW™ line of controllers features an array of LED lights that shine through the clear casing and can be turned on and off, or set to light up when the controller vibrates. PDP’s AFTERGLOW™ line includes controllers for the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PS3.
· LOGANO A FRONT-RUNNER AT HOMESTEAD: With the NASCAR Nationwide Series visiting Homestead-Miami Speedway only once per season, Logano’s stats at the track aren’t mind-blowing. But he’s made all three of his visits to the 1.5-mile South Florida track count. Logano has twice started from the pole at Homestead (2008 and 2010) and has led laps in each of his three starts at the track (21 laps led in 2008, 13 in 2009 and 17 in 2010). Logano’s best career finish at Homestead came in 2009, when he finished fourth. In fact, according to NASCAR Statistics, Logano’s average running position under green-flag conditions at Homestead-Miami Speedway is an impressive 5.9. He also leads all drivers with an average starting position of 2.0.
· BATTLE OF NASCAR FAMILIES… AND LOGANO SET FOR HOMESTEAD: On Saturday, Joey will participate in an event featuring the new NASCAR video game, NASCAR Unleashed, at Homestead. The event is all part of the “Battle of the NASCAR Kids” competition. NASCAR drivers’ children will compete against one another for pride and glory. As their dads coach and their moms manage them, these kids will race for first place and the honor of being crowned the first ever “Battle of the NASCAR Kids” champion. The event aims to bring together NASCAR families and ultimately raise money for charities, with each participating family donating $5,000 to a charity of their choice. Post race all the racers will band together to hand a check to The NASCAR Foundation for $25,000 from Activision. As part of the event, Logano will pick two lucky raffle ticket wild card racers from the audience, and he’ll coach them while playing in the tournament and trying to win a cool $5,000.
· CHASSIS: The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team will bring car #127 to the track this weekend. The car has raced in two events this season, at Michigan and again at Charlotte, where Logano was set for a top-three finish before an accident with just a handful of laps to go.
· STAT OF THE WEEK: 2.0. Logano’s average starting position at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Despite only running in three races at Homestead during the course of his career, Logano has qualified 1st, 4th and 1st in his three visits.
· THE RACE: The Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway (Homestead, FL; 1.5-mile oval) is set for Saturday afternoon, November 19, 2011. The race will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 4:30 p.m. ET, with radio coverage on MRN starting at 4 p.m. ET.
Joey Logano Quotes:
“It’s hard to believe that it’s the end of the season already and we are getting ready to run Homestead. It seems like just yesterday that we were unloading the GameStop Toyota at Daytona for the opener and thinking that we had a shot for a really good season. And now, here we are almost ready for another off season. We’ve had a lot of fun this year in the Nationwide Series. It’s been a struggle at times in figuring out these new Nationwide Series cars, but we’ve had some really good runs. We won at Daytona, which was huge for me and for the entire team. We almost won and finished second at Talladega and Bristol. We were right there at Watkins Glen. There have been plenty of ups and downs along the way. It’s also been great working with Adam (Stevens) all year. It’s been a lot of fun to see him go from being an Engineer on the Cup side to a Crew Chief over on the Nationwide side. And getting to work with guys like ‘Sib,’ ‘Rudy,’ and Joel, some of the guys I kind of came up through the racing ranks with again has been a lot of fun as well. It’s also been great to spend a few races with Jason (Ratcliff) this season. As a driver, you try to take as much knowledge from as many people as you can and that is what getting to work with Jason has allowed me to do this year. Between Adam, Jason and Zippy (Cup Crew Chief Greg Zipadelli), I’ve picked up a lot of valuable information this year.
“Homestead is a fun track. It’s one of those places where you can run just about anywhere and can move around to make your can handle better. You can go up top and run right near the wall or you can run near the bottom and take the short way around. It’s a lot of fun either way and gives you a lot of options as far as setting up the car. It’s really just about as fun as it is on the video game too. When I play the new NASCAR 2011 game in my motor home during the weekend, I often race my friends at Homestead. It’s just a lot of run in real life or on the game.
“It’s been a great year with GameStop and I’m looking forward to this weekend. We’ve got a big event with the new NASCAR Unleashed game and maybe one of my wild card picks will win $5,000. And the car this weekend looks great with PDP and Afterglow controllers on it. We’ve had some really cool games and really cool cars this year. The Batman, Wipeout, Captain America and Call of Duty cars were all really awesome this year. I’ll never get tired of driving for GameStop and the way they market themselves. They have to be one of the coolest sponsors out there, and I’m proud to represent them.”
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 – Dave Rudy Rear-end – Chris “Yoshi” Jones Tire Specialist – Glen Wheeler 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
