Logano Takes Home Depot Toyota to the Front, Gets Caught Up in Late-Race Wreck

Logano officially started 10th, but actually started the race in sixth after a number of cars dropped to the back of the pack following wrecks in practice Friday.

·     Logano moved from sixth to second after just one lap, pushing Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the lead.

·     The Home Depot Toyota spent much of the first segment of the race in the top five, Logano taking it to the lead on lap five.

·     At the lap-25 break, Logano was 10th.  The team changed four tires and fuel and made track bar and shock adjustments.

·     Logano was back up to third place by lap 27, fell back to ninth on lap 31 and was back to third by lap 34.

·     Logano was running third on lap 54 and trying to log laps when he was tagged from behind by another car, resulting in the Home Depot Toyota sliding up the track and into the outside wall.  Logano was able to drive the Home Depot Toyota back to the garage area, but the damage was terminal and Logano retired from the race.

·     The accident resulted in a disappointing 18th– place finish for the Home Depot Toyota despite having one of the strongest cars on the track.

Logano’s Post-Race Thoughts:

“It’s a disappointing finish to what was looking like it was going to be a good race for the Home Depot Toyota.  I was just trying to ride there in third.  I figured it we could just all ride and log some laps in a line and get down to the last 10 laps or so, then go for it.  But I got hit from behind and it got me loose, then hit again and it just turned us around.  After that, there is nothing you can do but just hold on.  It was not the way we wanted to finish the night with the Home Depot Toyota.  Our car was really fast.  We were running up in the top-five all night long.  When I got help, the car was really good. I felt like we had a car that could win tonight for sure.  If we were there at the end of the race, we could have had a shot.  Congrats to my teammate Kyle Busch though. If not us, it’s good to see a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in Victory Lane.

“It was wild out there tonight.  It was really back to the pack racing that everyone is used to here.  You couldn’t push another car very long without the car getting hot and once it did get hot, it took a while for the car to cool down.  You saw a lot of momentum changes tonight.  Two cars would get together and get a run and just like that, they would hit their limit and another couple cars would get a run, then someone would block and two more cars would hook up.  It was pretty wild.  It was everyone for themselves.  There were a couple of guys that I worked well with tonight and that worked with me. But in the end, we are all just trying to get our car to the front.  It will make for an interesting 500 next weekend I think.”

JGR