Joey Logano started second and finished ninth in the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion in Sunday afternoon’s Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway. At the drop of the green flag, Logano immediately settled into the second position, running there throughout the opening 21 laps. When the first caution flag of the afternoon was displayed, crew chief Todd Gordon opted to leave the Shell-Pennzoil Ford on the track with six other lead lap competitors, moving the No. 22 to the lead. Logano would lead 21 consecutive laps, and run in the top-two until the second caution flag of the afternoon was displayed at lap 62 when Gordon called the No. 22 Ford to pit lane for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. Logano had to battle from the outside lane on each of the races ensuing restarts, compounding an issue of a car that needed about 20 laps to reach its full potential. However, the long-run setup would prove to be the correct way for the team to go as the race featured a below-average total of five caution periods and feature a 151 lap green-flag run. The fifth and final caution flag was displayed at lap 358, midway through a green flag cycle of pit stops. Logano and his team were trapped in a wave-around situation and had to restart with nearly 20 lap-down cars in between them and the rest of the leaders. Logano battled throughout the remainder of the race, climbing back to finish in the ninth position. While the end result was less than what the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil team desired, it was a solid day in which problems found many of the chasers in the Round of Eight.

“Overall, we had a top-5 car, but we didn’t have the race play out the way we needed it to. No one made a mistake or is at fault, but that caution came out that jumbled the field up and we had the wave around to get back on the lead lap. Then when we waved around we were like thirty-something on the race track, so we just maintained. I just needed a caution to get caught up. I was hoping for a quick five-lap run and a caution so we could get caught up with those guys, but our Shell-Pennzoil Ford was better than ninth. We raced in the top five early in the race and that’s probably where we should have finished, but that’s racing sometimes. Sometimes you’re on each end of it. We got an OK day out of it – nothing bad and nothing great – but we got through it.”