Joey Logano started 13th and finished 24th in the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion in Sunday afternoon’s I Love NY 355 at Watkins Glen International. Logano, the 2015 race winner and 2016 runner up entered the afternoon seeking a victory to secure the 22 team’s place in the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. On the initial start of the race, Logano worked his way into the top-10, reaching the ninth position by lap 3, and continuing to push forward through the first stage. At the completion of the stage at lap 20, Logano and company found themselves in the seventh position. On the initial start of the race Logano reported that the balance of the car was loose through turns two and three, while maintaining a tight center in the circuit’s sweeping right handers. Crew chief Todd Gordon elected to adjust the No. 22 Ford with air pressure on the first stop of the day. Unfortunately, the team would battle getting the wheel indexed onto the studs on the right front and drop several positions in the process. In the second stage, Logano started to battle a loss of rear grip, while continuing to be tight through the center of the corners and loose on exit. Despite improved lap times, he reported that the handling had worsened. To complicate matters, contact was made on lap 27 with the No. 10 Ford, which knocked the toe out on the left front of the Shell-Pennzoil Fusion. The team elected to stay out at the end of the second stage and finished in the 12th position. Gordon would bring the team to pit road for the second time of the afternoon when the caution was displayed at lap 51. The stop dropped the team outside of the top-20, with other teams electing to remain on the track. On the restart, Logano was able to work back inside the top-20 but continued to lose ground with an overall lack of rear grip. Not wanting to play the fuel mileage card, Gordon elected to pit the Shell-Pennzoil Ford at lap 75, taking four tires and fuel in an effort to let Logano run hard to the finish in hopes of a late race caution. With the race running green to the completion, the team was forced to settle for a 24th-place finish.

“Best case scenario we were going to finish top-10 which does nothing for us. A top-5 or a win is the only thing that is going to help us, so we went for it by pitting and putting four tires on and hoping to get a caution and maybe cycle ahead of cars with new tires. Unfortunately it went green all the way and we didn’t get a good finish. We need to win the next few races here.”