Film study key to Joey Logano’s Daytona 500 win

Joey Logano is a budding superstar -- if he isn’t one already -- but he had a glaring weakness as a driver and it needed addressing.

Prior to his Daytona 500 victory on Sunday, Logano had gone 11 consecutive races at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway without a top-10 finish. The two restrictor-plate tracks continually vexed Logano due to impatience and a lack of understanding about the nuances of drafting.

“Superspeedway racing was not our specialty at all last year,” Logano said. “For me as a driver, I’ve never really been that good at this big pack drafting.”

So in the offseason Logano, crew chief Todd Gordon and spotter Tab Boyd went to work. They reviewed and studied last year’s plate races. What Logano saw was missed opportunities and repeated mistakes.

“There were a lot of times where before every time I got a run, I would just make a move,” Logano told reporters Monday. “There was a lack of patience and understanding the draft but the more we watched this and understood it, making smart moves and making sure you don’t put yourself in the position to basically lose everything you’ve got by working and staying up there all day.

That commitment to improving continued in the days leading to the Daytona 500. Logano, Gordon and Boyd watched the preliminary races together discussing strategy. Among the things observed were the importance of track position and how critical it is to stay near the front.

“The worst thing that can happen is if we come down pit road and put two tires on the car to stay up front and then you make a mistake and now you are 20th with two tires,” Logano said. “It isn’t a good deal. You have to work hard to stay up there with the track position.”

The effort paid off Sunday. Throughout the Daytona 500 Logano maintained a presence up front, with an average running position of fifth. Most imperative, he made sound decisions in the draft and was aggressive.

The same couldn’t be said of Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had the two best cars but lost track position. Gordon, who led 87 laps, stumbled on a restart, while Earnhardt later jumped out of line prematurely. Neither recovered, with Gordon finishing 33rd and Earnhardt third.

“You made some good ones, you make some bad ones,” Earnhardt said. “I made a bad one too late.”

When Logano led he deftly controlled the pack by sliding between the top and bottom lanes to cut off any runs. A rules package made passing a challenge, giving the leader a distinct advantage. Over the final laps Logano stunted the momentum of several challengers including Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson, who each have multiple wins on plate tracks.

“If you leave a gap they take it,” Logano said. “That was the key: trying to limit the mistakes I have made in the past and make sure that I tried to understand each move before we made it.”

Said Todd Gordon: “Joey did a phenomenal job of finding the right lines. I think Tab Boyd did a great job from the spotter’s stand to get us out front.”