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Joey Logano OneMain Financial 200 Preview

No. 18 Sport Clips Toyota News & Notes:

  • LOGANO WANTS TO GO “THE EXTRA MILE” AT DOVER: Joey Logano was just
    one-mile away from victory in the spring race at Dover International
    Speedway. One more lap around the track and Logano could have earned his
    first victory of the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series season. Instead, that
    last lap will be remembered for one of the scariest and more hair-raising
    crashes for the 2011 season thus far. Coming to the white flag,
    second-place driver Carl Edward’s car got loose while underneath Logano’s,
    slid up the track and got Logano aero loose. Logano’s car slid up the
    track, hit the outside wall and came back across the track, collecting
    several other cars in the process. As a result, the race ended under
    caution and Logano was credited with a 13th-place finish.
  • SPORT CLIPS WRAPS UP 2011 SPONSORSHIP THIS WEEKEND WITH SPECIAL
    DECALS: Sport Clips, a national sport-themed hair-care franchise for men
    and boys founded in 1995 with over 800 stores nationwide, will wrap up its
    2011 sponsorship program this weekend at Dover International Speedway,
    riding on the side of the No. 18 Toyota. It’s been a successful season for
    Sport Clips as a sponsor, collecting two wins (Denny Hamlin in Richmond and
    Logano at Daytona) and a number of other successful runs. The No. 18 Toyota
    will have a couple of special decals on the car this weekend as well. The
    car will include the VFW’s Operation Uplink logo on the rear quarter panel
    as well as the Help A Hero logo on the hood in support of Sport Clips’
    fundraising efforts that allow soldiers overseas and those hospitalized to
    call home and talk to their loved ones at no cost. To date, Operation Uplink
    has provided more than 4 million free calls home for soldiers and
    hospitalized veterans.
  • DOVER HOLDS PLENTY OF (GOOD & BAD) MEMORIES FOR LOGANO: In addition
    to his “monster” wreck in the NASCAR Nationwide Series event earlier this
    year, Dover holds a bunch of memories for Logano, both positive and
    negative. Logano wrapped up his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Championship at
    Dover International Speedway in 2007, capping off a remarkable and
    record-breaking K&N Pro Series East that saw him win seven races over the
    course of the season. Logano then made his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut
    on May 31, 2008 at Dover International Speedway, where he came home with a
    ninth-place start and a sixth-place finish. Logano also suffered one of the
    biggest accidents of his career at Dover in 2009, when he barrel-rolled his
    No. 20 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series machine a total of seven times down the
    banking of turns three and four.
  • No. 18 TEAM STILL LOOKING FOR POINTS CHAMPIONSHIP: Despite a
    frustrating 19th-place finish in the last NASCAR Nationwide Series event at
    Chicagoland Speedway, Logano and the No. 18 Sport Clips Toyota team for Joe
    Gibbs Racing still lead in the NASCAR Nationwide Series Owner’s Championship
    point standings. Heading into this weekend’s event at Dover, the No. 18
    team holds a 30-point lead in the standings over the No. 60 Roush-Fenway
    Racing team and an 89-point lead over the No. 6 Roush-Fenway Racing team
    with just six races remaining. With Kyle Busch, the regular driver of the
    No. 18 JGR Toyota, taking a few Nationwide Series events off at the end of
    the season to focus more on the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Logano is jumping
    into the seat for four of the final seven races of the season. In addition
    to the Chicagoland and Dover races, Logano is also scheduled to race the No.
    18 at Kansas and Phoenix. When taking the green at Chicagoland, Logano
    became the fifth different driver to spend time behind the wheel of the No.
    18 this season. In addition to Logano and Busch, Kelly Bires, Michael
    McDowell and Drew Herring have all driven the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
    this season.
  • CHASSIS: The JGR team will take chassis #121 to Dover International
    Speedway. The last time that chassis saw that track, it nearly found
    Victory Lane, where Logano finished second to Kyle Busch in a photo finish
    at Bristol. Chassis #117 will be the backup.
  • STAT OF THE WEEK: 78 of 82 Logano struggled to a 19th-place finish
    at Chicagoland Speedway two weeks ago. However, Logano’s career record of
    avoiding bad finishes is impressive. Of his 82-career NNS races, Logano has
    finished in the top-20 an impressive 78 times. Three of those four finishes
    outside the top-20 were the result of accidents.
  • THE RACE: The OneMain Financial 200 at Dover International Speedway
    (Dover, DE; 1-mile high-banked concrete oval) is set for Saturday afternoon,
    October 1st, 2011. The race will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 3:30 p.m. EST,
    with radio coverage on MRN starting at 3:00 p.m. EST.

Logano’s Season-To-Date NASCAR Nationwide Series Stats:

Starts

Wins

Top 5

Top 10

Poles

Laps Led

Earnings

Avg. Start

Avg. Finish

16

1

7

11

1

102

$411,960

7.0

8.4

Logano’s Career NASCAR Nationwide Series Stats:

Starts

Wins

Top 5

Top 10

Poles

Laps Led

Earnings

Avg. Start

Avg. Finish

82

9

40

65

16

1449

$2,946,164

7.2

7.3

Logano’s Career NASCAR Nationwide Series Stats at Dover International Speedway:

Starts

Wins

Top 5

Top 10

Poles

Laps Led

Earnings

Avg. Start

Avg. Finish

5

0

2

3

2

127

$133,386

6.2

7.4

Joey Logano Quotes:

“Dover is probably one of the coolest tracks that we go to all year long and
you see it on the track, because it normally puts on some pretty wild and
crazy races, as I’ve been a part of so many times there in the past. Dover
is cool just because it is part high-banked short track, but also has some
tendencies of a speedway being that it is so fast. It really can be one of
the most intimidating tracks we go to too with the unforgiving nature of it.
If there is a wreck happening, odds are you are probably going to get
involved. I guess they call it the ‘Monster Mile’ for a reason. A lot of
people think places like Daytona and Talladega are probably what you would
call the more intimidating tracks. But its actually tracks like Dover,
Darlington and others that get more of these drivers’ attentions. Tracks
like that can be pretty unforgiving.

“I love Dover and, outside of New Hampshire, it’s the closest thing on the
schedule I have to a home track. I’ve always had a lot of fans up here.
Ever since I came here in the East Series and won the championship, I’ve
seen a lot of fans here at the track with my shirts and hats on when we go
around the area and do autograph sessions. So now, I really want to win a
race here. We had a great car in the Nationwide race here in the spring and
were a lap away from finally winning one here when we got into that accident
with Carl (Edwards) and Clint (Bowyer). Me and Carl had a great battle that
day and it was going to come down to the end between the two of us. Carl
just got a little bit loose and slid up the track and got us loose and it
was on from there. I remember getting into the wall and thinking ‘whoa this
is going to be big.’ Clint got into us when we came back across the track
and several other cars piled in. I could see the underneath of Clint’s car
and was thinking ‘yep, this is big.’ That is a typical Dover wreck. It’s
just too bad because we had a great shot at winning that day.

“Hopefully we can have the same success again this weekend. There is
nothing we want and need more than a win for Sport Clips and the No. 18. We
want to do all we can to continue and build the lead for the No. 18 car with
just a few races to go. It’s going to come down me and Kyle (Busch) to get
this Owner’s Championship wrapped up. That is what this organization is
fighting for. We want to win races every weekend, but we also want this
Owner’s Championship. We struggled at Chicagoland, so there is nothing
better we can do than to come back and get a win here at Dover.”

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