Photo Credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
INDIANAPOLIS, IN. – Joey Logano made a late race charge for the lead in the Lilly Diabetes 250 on Saturday, but it wasn’t enough to defeat race winner 19-year-old William Byron. Logano brought the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford Mustang home in third for his fourth XFINITY Series top-five of 2017.
Logano was competing with eventual race winner Byron before getting passed by Paul Menard in the final laps. Menard battled with Byron for the lead while Logano had to settle for third as he lost ground to the leaders at the end of the race.
“I was a distant third. I was kind of in the hunt there with the 9, but just didn’t have a fast enough car to hang with him,” Logano said in a Ford release. “The handling kind of fell off there at the end as well. It’s interesting because you can trim it out and try to go fast and then handling comes into play, but it seemed like the 9 had a little bit of both. I really think the Gibbs cars were the two fastest cars and probably should have won the race today, so we executed and made the best out of our car.”
Logano was one of the six Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers to test out a new XFINITY race package that involved a restrictor plate and new aero ducts on the front of the car that caused for more downforce. Logano spoke with the media on Saturday in the media center concerning the new package.
“The package was really interesting. You had to race really smart,” Logano said. For us, we may not have had the fastest Discount Tire Ford, so I had a good restart early in the race and was able to gain track position. Then our pit crew and everyone did a great job of maintaining that track position.
“You had to be smart on restarts and knowing when to race guys and when to just keep momentum because if you started losing momentum you lost five or six spots. Being smart inside the car was key. I just wanted a faster car. That would have been key to do that to go up there and race with these guys.”
Logano will start sixth in today’s race at Indianapolis where he will seek his first victory at the famed Brickyard.
