Joey Logano Carrying Momentum Towards Chase Wild Card Berth

When the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season came to a close, Joey Logano was just coming to life. Not racing for the championship in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Logano was a factor in nearly each of the final 10 races of the season. Recording four top-five and six top-10 finishes, many looked as the young driver as a solid Chase contender in 2011.

Yet, as this season got underway, Logano struggled to put together the performances many expected. Falling as low as 29th in the standings, some began to write the Joe Gibbs Racing driver off as a Chase threat.

However, as the season has moved into the summer stretch and the final regular season race approaches, Logano and the No. 20 team has recovered and has the potential to secure a wild card spot in the Chase.

Two weeks ago at Infineon Raceway, Logano earned his first Sprint Cup pole of the season, won the K&N Pro Series West race, and then finished sixth in the Cup race. This past weekend in Daytona he won his first Nationwide Series race of the year before finishing third in Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400, moving into 20th in the series standings.

What this has done is build confidence for the 21-year-old driver and the No. 20 team.

“All that just builds momentum, and that’s something we needed as a team a lot lately,” Logano said. “We’ve been in a hole, and I think we’re doing a really good job digging ourselves out of it right now. It seems like once we get up on top of it we’ll be fine. I feel like we’re on our way out right now.

“We went through a segment like this last year; we were struggling and we came up out of it, and we finished off the year really strong with a lot of top 10 and top 5 finishes. Hopefully we’re on the same road right now, digging out of there, and we can get back on that run again.”

A string of engine issues and poor luck kept the No. 20 team down for much of the early stages of the season, leading some to believe a possible crew chief swap was in the works at JGR. However, as of late, the team has turned things around and quelled the rumors.

Logano said he does not believe much has changed since the beginning of the year when they struggled, it has simply taken their team longer to adapt to the new tire used this season.

“There’s not really much different from where the start of the season was until where it is now,” he said. “I think the big thing is the tire this year is a lot different than what we were ending with at the end of last year, and I think it’s taken us a long time to figure out what we need with the tire to make our cars go fast and a matter of myself getting used to it and figuring out what I need to deal with and what I need to focus on to make the car go faster. I think all that is kind of what really threw us all for a loop.”

As David Ragan proved this weekend in Daytona, for a driver between 11th and 20th in the standings one win may be the ticket into the Chase. Heading to a string of tracks Logano has performed well at in the past, he understands he has the potential to win his way into the Chase, but also realizes solid runs will lead to solid finishes.

“We’re excited that we’re back in the top 20 in points, but we need to be a lot better than that,” Logano said. “Now is the time to get that (momentum) going and try to move ourselves up there in points. Once you start running consistently again, those wins come. You’ve just got to be patient with it and not do nothing stupid in the meantime. We’ve definitely got to keep ourselves in the top 20, and as long as we keep doing that, we’ll be fine.”