For Joey Logano, Monster Mile Nationwide Win Feels Like the First Time
While Joey Logano’s victory in the Nationwide race at Dover was his third straight Dover win, the driver of the No. 22 Hertz Ford for Penske Racing was fixated on firsts instead.
“There were a lot of firsts for me today,” Logano said in the media center after the race. “Winning for Hertz, winning for the No. 22 Nationwide team, and winning for Ford were all firsts.”
“And finally and most importantly, winning for Roger (Penske, team owner) was a first,” Logano continued. “That’s the coolest part of this win.”
“There is a huge list of great race car drivers that have won for Roger Penske,” Logano said. “It’s cool to have my name put on that list too.”
In spite of battling Cup drivers Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne, both of whom had cars good enough to contend for the win, Logano was confident that he had Miles the Monster under his control.
“This is one of those race tracks that I feel like I know what it takes to win and what I need in a race car,” Logano said. “I was able to get Jeremy (Bullins, crew chief) the feedback he needed to give that car to me.”
Logano admitted that he didn’t quite have that confidence, however, the night before the race.
“Last night, I felt like we still weren’t there,” Logano said. “We had decent speed in our car but I felt like we were a second place car and not quite good enough to win.”
“Jeremy and all the 22 team did a great job changing about everything on it,” Logano continued. “They got the car a little bit better.”
In the end, the race was won in the pits by a gutsy call from the crew chief according to Logano.
“Really the winning call was on that last pit stop,” Logano said. “Jeremy made an audible and decided to do two tires to beat out a lot of those guys.”
“To give us that track position was the biggest thing.”
Crew chief Jeremy Bullins could not agree more with his driver and race winner.
“Obviously he’s really good here to win three in a row at any track,” Bullins said. “He obviously knows how to get around here.”
“And he’s right,” Bullins continued. “We changed just about everything.”
“I thought we were better today but wasn’t sure if we were good enough to win,” Bullins said. “We went back and forth in track position.”
“In the end we were racing the 5 and the 54, who had been up front all day,” Bullins continued. “As soon as we saw they were taking four, we called it off and took two.”
“The guys did a good job.”
Logano may have had another first in mind, that of beating that 54 car, driven by fellow Cup competitor Kyle Busch.
“It feels good, especially since this year he (Kyle Busch) has been winning everything,” Logano said. “To finally beat that 54 car, that was the team I worked with for the last seven years or so since my Nationwide debut really felt good.”
“To beat them means a lot to me after they have been winning so much this year,” Logano continued. “I wanted to beat them really bad and to get here in Victory Lane, you have to beat everyone.”
“They had a strong car again today but my man Jeremy made the right call for us.”
The victory was also Logano’s 19th in 114 NASCAR Nationwide Series races and his fourth top-10 finish for the season.
Following closely behind Logano was Brian Vickers in the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Vickers finished second and had the best finish of his season to date.
“The guys did a good job,” Vickers said. “But we just needed a little bit more right, one spot more right.”
“Obviously we wanted to get a win and get this Dollar General in Victory Lane,” Vickers continued. “But we were able to give $1.63 million dollars to Autism Speaks from the customers and Dollar General.”
“It’s phenomenal for them,” Vickers said. “And to show their generosity for a top-10 finish today, all Dollar General customers get 10 percent off on Monday.”
Vickers also credited his crew chief with gutsy calls on the pit box, just as Logano had done with his crew chief.
“That was a great call on Kevin’s (Kidd, crew chief) part,” Vickers said. “It was a last minute call and it was one thousand percent the right call to keep track position.”
“We were close to even with Logano there at the end of the race,” Vickers continued. “He was probably a little better on the short run and we were a little bit better on the long run.”
Vickers admitted that he was “pleased but not satisfied” with his runner up status.
“On one hand, I’m very excited – it was a great points day for the Dollar General team,” Vickers said. “But on the other hand – we wanted to win.”
“We were so close.”
This was Vickers fifth top-10 finish in six races at the Monster Mile. It was his sixth top-10 finish of the season.
Another Cup regular, Matt Kenseth, rounded out the top three in the 32nd annual 5-Hour Energy 200. Kenseth posted his 11th top-10 finish in 19 races at Dover International Speedway.
“We had a decent GameStop Toyota and made it better there at the end,” Kenseth said. “Got two tires and was able to make up some ground.”
“I stalled it one time coming out of the pits and so we got ourselves behind,” Kenseth continued. “So, it was just hard to come back from that.”
Even though he was disappointed, Kenseth did have some fun at the Monster Mile.
“It was fun to go out and get 200 laps,” Kenseth said. “We were ten laps away from getting a win.”
“So that was fun.”
Trevor Bayne also had a decent day behind the wheel of the No. 6 Ford Ecoboost Mustang, finishing fourth. And he too accomplished that top-5 finish with a gutsy call in the pits.
“Yeah, that two-tire stop got us in the game there,” Bayne said. “We needed that to get some track position.”
“I was really proud of these guys and the car that they gave me,” Bayne continued. “We have had some bad runs but now we got a couple good ones in a row and we need to keep it going.”
“Top-fives are what we gotta knock out every weekend and eventually that will lead to Victory Lane.”
Kyle Busch, who had been so strong in his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing for much of the race, did pull off a fifth place finish. Unfortunately for him, pit strategy did not play to his favor, ruining a possible Dover sweep.
“It was a great race car,” Busch said simply. “Just real unfortunate that I messed up pit strategy there, you know.”
“Got us too far back,” Busch continued. “I tried to make some big moves there and a couple of them worked.”
“But a couple of them didn’t,” Busch said. “It is what it is.”
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 32 Vizio/Hulu Chevrolet, was the top finishing rookie, scoring the tenth spot.
“We started out the first half of the race good through one and two,” Larson said. “We were really good there at the end but we lost a spot or two on every pit stop.”
“Track position was key today,” Larson continued. “Three top-10s in a row is great and I’m looking forward to Iowa.”
Martin Truex Jr. Jersey Strong at the Monster Mile
The driver of the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, Martin Truex Jr., took time to visit his home state of New Jersey before heading to what he considers his home track at Dover, Delaware.
And, in light of all the crazy weather events recently, he also had the Jersey shore on his mind as the area continues to recover from Superstorm Sandy. Most of all, Truex is trying to do his own part to help the Jersey strong effort, especially through the foundation that bears his name.
“I haven’t been to the shore since Christmas, but I was there after Sandy,” Truex said. “Yes, I did get to see a lot of the homes on the shoreline in my local area over there on the island and of course on the bay that had gotten beat up pretty good.”
“I saw some homes that were just gone,” Truex continued. “There were boats on the marsh up against the wood line, things like that.”
“We got to help a lot of people through our Foundation,” Truex said. “We donated a lot of money to the area to a lot of people.”
What meant the most to Truex, in addition to having his family involved in the Foundation support effort, was that he personally helped to distribute the funding to those in need.
“It was neat because we did it with our own board, our own committee of people up in the area that were hit and it was spearheaded by my sister,” Truex said. “We got to help a lot of people with a lot of things without going through anyone else.”
“We were able to give them every dime we raised, which I think was upwards of $150,000,” Truex continued. “We paid people’s mortgages, rebuilt people’s houses and did all kinds of really neat things.”
“So, that was cool.”
While Truex admitted that there was still room for recovery, he also is feeling good that the shore area is strong and getting stronger. And he cannot wait to visit, which he hopes to do sometime over the summer if his schedule permits.
“The area is getting back to somewhat being normal,” Truex said. “Hopefully this summer I’ll be able to get up there and see how it is coming along.”
Prior to arriving at Dover International Speedway, Truex did get the opportunity to do some racing in his home state. And he really enjoyed being at home and on the track.
“We went to New Jersey Motorsports Park, the second time I’ve been there,” Truex said. “It’s a beautiful facility with very good people running it.”
“Just got to run some go karts with some guys from NAPA and had a good time with that,” Truex continued. “I don’t get to get up there as much as I’d like to.”
Truex also took the opportunity to reminisce about his growing up days in New Jersey. And, of course, he credited his racing family, particularly his father, for being where he is currently in the sport.
“He’s the only reason I ever got into racing,” Truex said of his father. “There are tons and tons of stories about him.”
“Watching him race the modified at Wall Stadium (Wall Township, New Jersey) was my first memories of racing in general,” Truex continued. “Of course going on the road and traveling with him to some Busch North races, going to some tracks here and New Hampshire, was also cool.”
“The most special memory of all was probably watching him win at New Hampshire, that was one of the coolest moments for me as a kid,” Truex said. “It was great watching my dad win on the big stage.”
“As I grew up, that’s all I ever wanted to do was race because my dad did it.”
While Truex Jr. is no doubt a Jersey boy, he also considers the Monster Mile in Dover, Delaware as his ‘home track.’
“Everybody knows I consider this kind of my home track,” Truex said. “I’m excited to be here this weekend.”
“Our team has been doing a good job lately and this is a good track for us,” Truex continued. “Hopefully, this will be the track where we break through and get back to Victory Lane.”
Truex Jr. might just have his chance to get back into winning mode since he is starting from the outside pole at the Monster Mile. He scored that honor with a time of 22.814 seconds and a speed of 157.798 miles per hour.
“I’m happy with the run obviously,” Truex said post-qualifying. “Chad (Johnston, crew chief) and the guys did a really good job with the NAPA Toyota and made some really good adjustments.”
“We knew the track was slick from watching Nationwide practice,” Truex continued. “I probably left maybe a little bit out there.”
“This is a place where if you get too much, you can be 30th,” Truex said. “So, I was a tiny bit conservative in one spot where I had trouble in practice.”
“Starting up front is very important.”
While Truex Jr. has a great starting place, he also acknowledged that he will have his work cut out for him at a track where the monster is the prize.
“I think the hardest thing about this place is getting your car to do what you want,” Truex said. “The second hardest thing is when it’s not doing what you want, trying to drive the thing for 400 laps.”
“It’s miserable to have a car that is not doing what you want here,” Truex continued. “Our rear tires are bouncing and we hear guys talking about tires feel like basketballs here all the time.”
“If you’re a little bit off as the day goes on, it just gets worse and worse and you get madder and madder,” Truex said. “It’s a tough race track, but when your car is right, there’s no more fun race than here in Dover.”
“It’s always nice to come home.”
Mike Conway dominates Race 1 of the Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit presented by Quicken Loans
Following some wrecks in his career on the ovals in IndyCar, Mike Conway stated that he did not want to run full-time in the series as he didn’t want to run the ovals. So when the opportunity came up to drive for Dale Coyne Racing at in Detroit, Conway jumped at the chance.
He made the most of that opportunity as he would take the victory with a commanding lead ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay. His victory in Race 1 of the Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit presented by Quicken Loans marks the second win of his career. His first career victory came at Long Beach in 2011.
“The car has been great all weekend and as the track was rubbering in it was getting better and better,” Conway said. “It was keep pushing and get a gap, and the strategy worked out perfectly at the end. I wanted to stay out and do more laps.”
Conway would make the pass on Hunter-Reay on lap 44, before holding serve throughout the course of green flag pit stops to close out the event.
With three laps to go, Ryan Briscoe did make contact with the tire wall after getting loose and stalled, though officials decided to leave Briscoe’s car there with the corner under a “local caution” instead of bringing out a full course caution to remove his car. Briscoe took over for J.R. Hildebrand, after he was let go from Panther Racing.
Defending series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay would finish second, following a second place finish in last week’s Indianapolis 500.
Justin Wilson, Conway’s teammate, would finish third to make it two cars on the podium for Dale Coyne Racing.
Scott Dixon would finish fourth after being involved in a first lap caution with A.J. Allmendinger. On the start with the field tightly packed together heading into turn 10, the field began to slow up. Dixon slowed up, but Allmendinger did not. Allmendinger would drive over the back of Dixon’s car, making heavy contact with the turn 10 wall.
“Just a tight start,” Allmendinger said. “Part of a street course, three four wide, guys on either side of me. Just ran over Dixon there, not ready for them to check up. I’m doing everything I can, but sometimes that is not enough. It’s my fault. I feel bad for doing this in trying to show my appreciation to them. My guys are doing more work tonight than they should.”
Allmendinger’s team plans to have his car fixed for tomorrow’s race.
Meanwhile, Dixon’s team made lengthy repairs under a stop and Dixon was able to work his way through the field via strategy and pure driving to finish fourth.
Helio Castroneves would round out the top five to take the points lead, three points ahead of Marco Andretti. Andretti came in as the points leader, but would hit the wall and make contact with Charlie Kimball, resulting in lengthy repairs on pit road under green.
Dario Franchitti finished sixth after struggling last week at Indianapolis. Josef Newgarden finished seventh, followed by Will Power, Graham Rahal and James Jakes.
Rookie Tristan Vautier finished 11th, followed by Simon Pagenaud, Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan, Kimball and James Hinchcliffe.
Despite winning two street course races this year, Hinchcliffe struggled throughout the race, before having to make an unscheduled pit stop on lap 42 for one of the corner tires being stuck under the car. He collected the tire while trying to make a pass.
Barber Motorsports Park winner Takuma Sato would suffers problems throughout the day, running out of fuel under green early in the race. Officials would toe him to pit road and he would be able to continue. Under that caution, Alex Tagliani made contact with the tires in turn three.
Sebastian Saavedra would lose a tire and gets into the wall after contact with Marco Andretti. He would then proceed to give Saavedra the two-bird salute.
“Just frustrating that Marco keeps making those dirty moves,” Saavedra said. “It’s just unfortunate that he just punched me out of the way like that.”
Conway will try to win the $50,000 bonus for winning both races on a weekend tomorrow. He will start that event from the pole after winning the Verizon Pole Award earlier today.
“This is great to get our first pole,” Dale Coyne, Conway’s car owner, said. “We have had many front-row performances, but I am thankful for Mike bringing us our first pole. Maybe a yellow Sonny’s car is good luck.”
Jakes would qualify second, followed by Conway’s teammate Wilson in third.
Lap by Lap: 5-Hour Energy 200 won by Joey Logano
After taking two tires on a late race pit stop, Joey Logano would lead the final laps to win his third straight race at Dover International Speedway.
Green flag
Lap 1 Austin Dillon leads ahead of Sam Hornish Jr.
Lap 2 A. Dillon leads Hornish Busch Bowman Kahne Logano T. Dillon Smith Scott Kenseth
Lap 5 Kahne passes Bowman for fourth
Lap 6 Kahne passes Busch for third as Busch gets loose while underneath Hornish for second
Lap 7 A Dillon leads Hornish Kahne Busch Bowman Logano Smith T Dillon Kenseth
Lap 8 Logano passes Bowman for fifth
Lap 9 T Dillon passes Smith for ninth
Lap 35 Dillon leads Busch Logano Hornish Kahne Kenseth Vickers Smith Bowman Bayne
Lap 36 Busch passes Dillon for the lead
Lap 40 Bayne passes Bowman for ninth
Lap 46 Joe Nemecheck hits the wall and brings out the caution. Leaders head down pit road. Dillon leads Logano Hornish Kahne Kenseth Busch Smith Vickers Bayne and Allgaier off pit road. Kligerman leaves pit road with his jack.
Restart lap 53 Joey Logano leads
Lap 58 Logano leads Dillon Busch Kenseth Hornish Kahne Vickers Smith Bayne Allgaier
Lap 60 Kahne passes Hornish
Lap 71 Logano leads Busch Kenseth Dillon Kahne Vickers Hornish Smith Bayne Allgaier
Caution lap 79 Sadler gets into the wall. He got loose off of turn four, and slapped the inside wall. leaders head down pit road. Dillon and Bayne lead the field off pit road.
Restart lap 85 Dillon and Bayne are side-by-side for the lead. Bayne pulls ahead with the lead ahead of Dillon and Busch.
Lap 88 Bayne leads Busch Logano Dillon Kahne Vickers Smith Hornish Kenseth Allgaier
Lap 90 Busch passes Bayne for the lead; Kahne passes Dillon
Lap 94 Logano passes Bayne for second
Lap 103 Busch leads Logano Kahne Bayne Dillon Vickers Kenseth Smith Hornish Allgaier
Caution lap 112 Mike Wallace hits the backstretch wall hard after contact from Kahne. Leaders head down pit road. Kahne leads Busch Logano Vickers Dillon Bayne Smith Bowman Kenseth and T Dillon off pit road.
Restart lap 121 Kahne clears Busch on the restart
Caution lap 122 Reed Sorenson stalls on the track
Restart 72 to go Busch takes the lead back from Kahne
Lap 132 Busch leads Kahne Logano Vickers Bayne A Dillon Kenseth Hornish Smith Bowman
Lap 146 Busch leads Kahne Logano Vickers Bayne A Dillon Kenseth Hornish Smith Kligerman
40 laps to go Busch leads Kahne Logano Vickers Bayne A Dillon Kenseth Hornish Smith Kligerman
Restart 39 to go as Dexter Stacey goes for a slide. Leaders head down pit road. Logano leads Vickers Bayne Dillon Hornish Kenseht Smith T Dillon Scott and Kligerman off pit road as many of the leaders take two tires
Restart 34 to go Logano pulls ahead of Vickers
32 to go Logano leads Vickers Bayne Hornish A Dillon Kenseth Smith T Dillon Kahne Busch
30 laps to go Kahne passes Smith and T Dillon; Busch passes T Dillon…..Busch passes Smith
29 to go Logano leads Vickers Bayne Hornish Kenseth A Dillon Kahne Busch Smith T Dillon
16 to go Logano leads Vickers Kenseth Bayne Hornish A Dillon Busch Kahne Smith Larson
8 to go Busch passes Dillon for sixth
6 to go Busch passes Hornish for fifth
5 to go Kahne passes A Dillon for seventh
2 to go Kahne passes Hornish for sixth
Joey Logano wins three in a row at Dover. Vickers Kenseth Bayne Busch Kahne Hornish Dillon Smith Larson
Mike Conway wins pole for Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit presented by Quicken Loans 2
In qualifying for the second of two races this weekend in the Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit presented by Quicken Loans, Mike Conway would earn his first pole position. He will lead the field to the green of the 70-lap race on Sunday afternoon.
“We just had to hang out and see what we had and it was enough for pole,” Conway said. “Excellent job by all the guys at the team at Dale Coyne for making this happen. We couldn’t have asked for much more coming into this weekend.”
He would record a lap of one minute, 18.0977 seconds in his qualifying group.
“This is great to get our first pole,” Dale Coyne, Conway’s team owner, said. “We have had many front-row performances, but I am thankful for Mike bringing us our first pole. Maybe a yellow Sonny’s car is good luck.”
James Jakes, who led the first group, will start from the second position, driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. It marks his best career start.
“I think we would have had a shot at pole if our session hadn’t been cut short,” Jakes said. “In a way it’s good, but it’s still a little disappointing to miss out on pole. Going to have to find which hotel Conway is staying so I can high jack his room tonight. He keeps on spoiling the party. But no, congratulations to those guys they’ve been strong all weekend.”
Penske Racing driver Will Power qualified third, followed by last year’s champion Ryan Hunter-Reay and E.J. Viso.
