Logano Sets Bristol Xfinity Records

Logano Perfect in Bristol Xfinity 300

(BRISTOL, TN – APR 18, 2015 – RIS) Joey Logano started second, surged into the lead on the first lap and was never headed again in the Drive to Stop Diabetes 300, winning the race over rookie Daniel Suarez by 1.172 seconds. Interrupted by eight cautions, including one red flag for debris from JJ Yeley's car stuck under the SAFER barrier, the race ran at an average speed of 87.218 mph. Suarez' second-place finish came in his first series start at Bristol.

No real challenges arose to Logano's record-setting domination as he drove to his second series win at Bristol and 23rd series win. It is his second victory and seventh top-10 finish in nine races at Bristol Motor Speedway. He led all 300 laps - a Bristol Motor Speedway NASCAR XFINITY Series race record and a series record for most laps led in a race. It is his best career finish and second top-10 finish in 2015.

"I've never led every single lap in a race before," said Logano in Victory Lane. "Gosh, that's amazing. You're waiting for something to go wrong. Such a fast car and with late cautions and all that stuff and you're like, 'Alright, where am I gonna blow this thing?' Because those are the ones that you're just nervous throughout the whole race…. Greg Erwin and all this team here, it was a perfect day. I can't ask for anything more out of them. I want to say hey to Steve Byrnes back at home. We miss you, and we'll try to do this again tomorrow."

JOEY LOGANO PRESS CONFERENCE – YOU'RE THE FIRST DRIVER TO LEAD EVERY LAP HERE IN THE XFINITY SERIES. TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN. "It's not often you get a car that is that good. In practice, I thought that we were OK and last night we were talking about it and he's like, 'What do you think? How do we stack up?' And I was like, 'Ahhh, I think we're just OK. I don't think we're great.' I felt like if everything went right, we'd have a shot at winning the race, but I did not think we were gonna have a car like this. Overnight adjustments made it a lot better and maybe I was just asking for the world, but apparently it worked out. It's not very often you get a car that is that fast. When you have a car like that the whole race you're just hoping that something doesn't go wrong and you're looking for the checkered flag because it's pretty neat to say you've led every single lap. That's actually a pretty neat little thing. I've never done that before in my career and I don't think in any kind of race cars, so that's pretty cool to do today."

GREG ERWIN, Crew Chief – No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – DID YOU KNOW WHEN YOU STARTED IT WAS GOING TO BE THIS GOOD? "No, we didn't. The hard part is what we have is a couple races with Ryan last year and then in 2013 a couple races with Brad, so, again, knowing how Joey was going to adapt to the baseline that we have as the 22 program was sort of a question mark. But so far between Phoenix and here and Atlanta, obviously, we're doing the right things for him. They build such nice equipment at Penske Racing and our people in particular, our road crew and our shop crew, I've got to thank them because the things have been rocket ships off the truck and Andrea there as the team engineer puts in an amazing amount of effort in trying to keep records straight for all three of these drivers and keep me informed with the information that I need to make the decisions. Honestly, we were up pretty late last night trying to get this thing sorted out and an early morning, so it feels good for it to all kind of culminate in an effort like this. This guy is unreal."

JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED – DID YOU EVER FEEL LIKE HARVICK HAD SOMETHING FOR YOU IF HE COULD HAVE GOTTEN BACK UP THERE? "I did for sure. I actually think his car was faster when we had clean race track. He was able to run the wall really well, which is something that I think he's really good at as a driver also. He's able to go up there and be aggressive and be able to make lap time. We saw that in Cup practice earlier today, but it didn't seem like he can come off the wall and have any speed. In this XFINITY Series there are a lot of cars that you're lapping fairly quick into a run and that's when we were able to start legging him. At one point I went up there and I was trying really hard and about crashed our car and then after that being able to just kind of pull back away through traffic, and it's not very often as the leader of a race do you hope there is lap traffic coming to you. Today was one of those days because our car was able to move around the race track really well and that was something that paid off."

AFTER THE HALFWAY POINT DID YOU HAVE THE FACT YOU HAD LED EVERY LAP IN THE BACK OF YOUR MIND? "I was sitting there thinking and I was like, 'I think we've led every lap so far, but I'm not sure.' And I thought, 'It would be pretty cool if we did that,' and then under the red flag Michael Waltrip and Jeff Gordon were in my ear telling me about it so I was like, 'Oh, alright.' At that point, obviously winning the race is the ultimate goal no matter what, but you also don't want to let anyone by for half-a-lap because you want to be able to say you've led every lap. That's something pretty cool to be able to say, so I ran pretty hard the whole race just trying to achieve the goal of leading every lap and ultimately the last one. The last thing I wanted to do was lead every one but the last one. That would be a completely different interview in here right now, so it was a special day for sure. It seems like every time I've got in this Discount Tire Ford this year it's been remarkable, so I've got to try to run more races. I've got to try to take more from Brad and Blaney. I don't know how I'm going to do that (laughing)."

ANY ADAPTATION AT THE START OF THE RACE GIVEN YOU HAD PRACTICED TWICE IN THE SPRINT CUP CAR? "You get an idea as a Sprint Cup driver, having happy hour right before the race as quick as this track was changing is a substantial advantage for the first 20 laps, and I think everyone kind of figures it out and it is what it is. But you get to run a whole practice and see where the track is going. As a driver how different you have to drive to make speed up against the wall compared to the bottom, where we pretty much practiced the whole time. So if you didn't have the opportunity to go up there, the Cup guys have an advantage for that reason, but it seems like after a few laps everyone kind of figures it out and it is what it is. Just like everyone else, we weren't able to practice our XFINITY car up in that groove, so you're still kind of wishy-washy on which way your car is gonna go and what's gonna happen, but as a driver you know what to expect, what the grip level is going to be up there, and maybe move up there a little bit sooner than other drivers."

Race Results - 33rd Annual Drive To Stop Diabetes 300, Bristol Motor Speedway

Fin, Str, Driver, Car, Lap, Pts, Status, TLd, LLd
1) 2, Joey Logano(i), No. 22 Discount Tire Ford, 300, 0, Running, 1, 300
2) 9, Daniel Suarez #, No. 18 ARRIS Toyota, 300, 42, Running, ,
3) 14, Chris Buescher, No. 60 Roush Performance Products Ford, 300, 41, Running, ,
4) 1, Erik Jones(i), No. 20 GameStop Toyota, 300, 0, Running, ,
5) 16, Ty Dillon, No. 3 Yuengling Light Chevrolet, 300, 39, Running, ,
6) 13, Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, 300, 38, Running, ,
7) 6, Kevin Harvick(i), No. 88 Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevrolet, 300, 0, Running, ,
8) 4, Brian Scott, No. 2 Shore Lodge Chevrolet, 300, 36, Running, ,
9) 8, Brendan Gaughan, No. 62 South Point Chevrolet, 300, 35, Running, ,
10) 12, Elliott Sadler, No. 1 OneMain Financial Ford, 300, 34, Running, ,
11) 17, Brennan Poole, No. 42 DC Solar Chevrolet, 300, 33, Running, ,
12) 7, Darrell Wallace Jr. #, No. 6 Ford EcoBoost Ford, 300, 32, Running, ,
13) 21, Jeremy Clements, No. 51 AllSouthElectric.com/RprbleVhcls.com Chev, 299, 31, Running, ,
14) 11, John Wes Townley(i), No. 25 Zaxby's Chevrolet, 297, 0, Running, ,
15) 20, Jeffrey Earnhardt, No. 55 Viva Auto Group Chevrolet, 297, 29, Running, ,
16) 3, Austin Dillon(i), No. 33 Rheem Chevrolet, 297, 0, Running, ,
17) 23, Ryan Sieg, No. 39 Uncle Bob's Self Storage Chevrolet, 296, 27, Running, ,
18) 29, David Starr, No. 44 Zachry/BuildYourFuture.org Toyota, 296, 26, Running, ,
19) 33, Cale Conley #, No. 14 IAVA Toyota, 296, 25, Running, ,
20) 25, Mike Bliss, No. 19 TriStar Motorsports Toyota, 295, 24, Running, ,
21) 24, Ryan Reed, No. 16 Lilly/American Diabetes Association Ford, 294, 23, Running, ,
22) 32, Blake Koch, No. 8 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Toyota, 294, 22, Running, ,
23) 22, Dakoda Armstrong, No. 43 WinField Ford, 294, 21, Running, ,
24) 28, Todd Bodine, No. 90 BigRig12.com Chevrolet, 293, 20, Running, ,
25) 27, Joey Gase, No. 52 Donate Life/DB Sales Company Chevrolet, 293, 19, Running, ,
26) 26, Eric McClure, No. 24 Hefty/Reynolds Wrap Toyota, 291, 18, Running, ,
27) 18, Ross Chastain #, No. 4 teamjdmotorsports.com Chevrolet, 273, 17, Engine, ,
28) 19, Landon Cassill, No. 01 Flex Seal Chevrolet, 268, 16, Brakes, ,
29) 31, Harrison Rhodes #, No. 0 Flex Seal Chevrolet, 260, 15, Running, ,
30) 10, Regan Smith, No. 7 TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet, 252, 14, Running, ,
31) 5, Denny Hamlin(i), No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota, 229, 0, Running, ,
32) 35, Peyton Sellers #, No. 97 Obaika Racing Chevrolet, 227, 12, Electrical, ,
33) 15, JJ Yeley, No. 28 Texas 28 Spirits Stage Toyota, 206, 11, Accident, ,
34) 37, Timmy Hill(i), No. 13 Braille Battery Grafoid Toyota, 198, 0, Engine, ,
35) 39, Mike Harmon, No. 74 Absolute Machines Dodge, 106, 9, Suspension, ,
36) 38, Carlos Contreras, No. 15 BYB/Dawg-Fight.com Chevrolet, 60, 8, Brakes, ,
37) 36, Derrike Cope, No. 70 Nature Nate's Honey Company Chevrolet, 55, 7, Fuel Pump, ,
38) 30, Morgan Shepherd, No. 89 King's Tire Chevrolet, 41, 6, Brakes, ,
39) 34, Jeff Green, No. 10 TriStar Motorsports Toyota, 28, 5, Vibration, ,
40) 40, Derek White, No. 40 Braille Battery Grafoid Dodge, 11, 4, Electrical, ,

# = Rookie, (i) Ineligible for driver points in this series
Fin = Finish, Str = Start, Pts = Total Points, BPs = Lap Leader Bns Pts, TLd = Times Led, LLd = Laps Led.
Margin of Victory: 1.172 Seconds
Average Speed: 87.218 MPH
Cautions: 8 for 48 laps Time of Race: 01 Hrs, 50 Mins, 00 Secs.

John Davison

Long-time RIS staffer, beginning in the mid-80s. Charlotte, NC area local contact.

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Volume 2015, Issue 3, Posted 4:58 PM, 04.18.2015