Joey Logano and The Home Depot Team have become a force to reckon with on the road courses in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The team followed up its sixth-place finish at Infineon Raceway in June with a fifth-place finish today at Watkins Glen International. Logano started from the 13th position, ran a clean race and earned his first top-five finish at a road course in his Sprint Cup career. The result moved Logano up three spots in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver standings from 20th to 17th.

“This finish feels great,” said Logano. “A sixth in Sonoma and a fifth here, I’m pumped up about it. We as a team have been doing great lately and this momentum, it carries from ovals on to road courses and any other track we go to. I’m looking forward to every time we get to unload this bad boy and try to win something with it. Max Papis helped me a ton this weekend so I owe a lot to him on making me a better road course driver. I had fun with it today. It’s the first time I’ve ever had an uneventful Watkins Glen race on the Cup side at least. It was a good day for our Home Depot Team.”

Mother Nature was not kind to the series on Sunday and the race was postponed until Monday morning. Logano lined up 13th in The Home Depot Toyota when the green flag waved for the scheduled 90-lap race. Logano gained three spots in the first two laps to move up into the top 10. He was one spot away from the top five sitting sixth on lap 20. The first caution flag of the day waved on lap 27 when the No. 16 car ran out of fuel. Crew chief Greg Zipadelli had a very specific pit stop strategy and was about to call Logano down pit road when the yellow flag waved. He told his driver to save fuel, and pit as soon as pit road opened. Logano brought The Home Depot Toyota down to the attention of his crew on lap 29 for tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment to get more grip off the corners.

Racing resumed on lap 31 with Logano in the 12th position. Several cars in front of Logano pitted earlier, but at the halfway mark he was back into the top 10. The caution flag waved again on lap 49 when the No. 22 car wrecked hard into the tire barrier. Logano told Zipadelli the car was a little tight now. Zipadelli told Logano to remain on the track to adhere to the plan to complete the race on just two pit stops. The green flag waved on lap 52 and the No. 20 Toyota was sitting eighth. Zipadelli called Logano down pit road on lap 60, when they were within their fuel window to make it to the checkered flag. Logano’s teammate Denny Hamlin brought out the caution five laps later on lap 65 and it took four laps to get it cleaned up for the restart on lap 69.

Logano was 10th with 20 laps remaining in the race and moved up to ninth on lap 72 when he passed the No. 31 car of Jeff Burton. The yellow flag waved once again on lap 87 for the No. 27 car. Logano lined up ninth for the green-white-checker finish on lap 90. He made some aggressive moves on the inside line and when he took the white flag was sitting fifth. Unfortunately a multi-car crash ensued behind Logano and the caution flag waved before he could make a run at the No. 56 car. The wreck involved several cars, including one that flipped onto its roof. Fortunately the drivers involved were able to walk away from the wreck.

“That final restart worked out perfect,” said Logano. “Every restart I started on the outside and thought if I could maintain on the outside and not lose a spot that was a good restart for me. Finally, on the last one we got to start on the inside and I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be good.’ I was able to have a good start and get it three-wide with the 14 (Tony Stewart) and the 1 (Jamie McMurray) and everyone just overdrove the corner. They all just went up the race track and I was able to capitalize and get a few cars there before the final caution flag waved.”

Logano was scored in fifth when the checkered flag waved, while his teammates Kyle Busch and Hamlin finished third and 36th respectively. Logano now sits 17th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver standings, just 12 points out of the top 15. The series heads to Michigan International Speedway next weekend. The race will be broadcast on Sunday on ESPN beginning at 1:00 p.m. EDT and on MRN Radio.

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