Joey Logano during driver introductions for the Crayon 301 (Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
LOUDON, N.H. – Joey Logano ended the Crayon 301 at New Hampshire Motorspeedway from the second position after running in the top ten the whole race.
Logano showed notable speed early in the weekend, qualifying fourth on Saturday morning with a speed of 30.542 seconds, 0.047 seconds behind the pole sitter, Christopher Bell.
Once the green flag finally dropped on the rain delayed race Monday afternoon, Logano did not show any less speed, with a ninth place Stage 1 finish followed by a third place Stage 2 finish. The Team Penske driver contended with race winner Martin Truex Jr. throughout Stage 3 for the win, but in the end did not have enough speed to overtake Truex Jr. in the No. 19 car.
The Middletown, Connecticut native felt after the race that Truex ran better than himself, especially when he was driving the No. 22 in the bottom lane. This led to Logano starting behind Truex on a restart during Lap 293 of the 301 lap long race in a final attempt to gain the advantage over Truex Jr.
“Getting a launch is pretty tough on the bottom,” Logano said. “I was spinning the tires, and I thought if I could start directly behind him, put the pressure on him, maybe he would make a mistake but he didn’t. It was my only chance.”
Joey Logano behind the wheel of the No. 22 at New Hampshire Motorspeedway. (Photo: Josh Jones | The Podium Finish)
Logano also reflected on the situation the Ford cars are in at this point in the season with the playoffs approaching. Throughout the 2022 season to this point in the 2023 season with the new seventh generation car, a Ford car has gone to victory lane just 11 times compared to 31 wins for Chevrolet and 14 wins for Toyota now.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Logano said. “We can’t look at this and say that was good enough. We got smoked by the 20 (Christopher Bell) and the 19 (Truex Jr.) all day. The 20 just screwed up plenty of times to keep him from leading every lap with the 19. We’ve still got a lot of work to do. We need a lot more down force and a lot more horsepower. We’re moving in the right direction, [we’ve] just got to keep working on that.”
The 2022 Cup Series champion may not have brought home the checkered flag from New Hampshire, however, he did gain 45 points from Monday’s race, and currently sits in the 10th position for points and the regular season championship. Aside from the regular season championship, Logano is already locked into the playoffs with his win at Atlanta in March.
Editor’s Notes
Nathan Solomon contributed to this article on site from New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire.
