Logano Finishes Fifth After Dominating at Fontana


Joey Logano and the No. 20 GameStop Toyota dominated Saturday's Stater
Brothers 300 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., leading 130 (of
152) laps after starting from the pole position. It was a sparkling and
near-perfect ride for the first 150 laps, as Logano led with apparent
ease, assisted by very fast pit work by the Joe Gibbs Racing crew.
However, on the final restart on lap 150, Logano led the field into turn
one until being pushed up the track by Greg Biffle, sliding Logano back to
fourth place. While fighting to the finish line, Logano spun through the
infield grass and was credited with a fifth-place finish. The contact with
Biffle is a repeat from the fall race at Fontana in 2009, when Logano came
back to win after being pushed into the wall by Biffle. Joe Gibbs Racing
teammate Kyle Busch took the victory, passing Biffle in the final mile.
Brad Keselowski finished third.

Joey Logano Quotes:  Regarding the contact on the final restart:  "I got
hit. I don't know. We had an awesome race car that should have won the
race. The 27 (Biffle) decided to hit us again. I don't know what his deal
is with me, but for some reason in California he feels like putting me in
the fence or hitting me towards the end. I know we were racing hard there
at the end, but. I don't know. I think he could have done it a little
cleaner than that. Oh well. It was a good run for the GameStop Toyota.
Obviously we were the dominant car. I should have won it. It's tough after
leading that many laps and you don't get a victory out of it."

Race Recap: Logano grabbed his eighth career Nationwide Series pole
position in 43 starts in the No. 20 GameStop Toyota, which this week
carried the bright colors of the Mario Kart for Wii video game. It was his
second consecutive pole position at Auto Club Speedway. The domination
began at the drop of the green flag as Logano took the lead into the first
corner, and surrendered it for only three laps in the first 79 circuits.
With brisk pit work, Logano stayed in the front until a pit stop on lap 88
dropped him to ninth place when others chose not to pit. At the restart,
it took Logano only nine laps to retake the lead on lap 100. At each
subsequent restart, Logano would pull away from the field and was leading
by more than two seconds when a spin on lap 144 brought out the final
yellow flag of the race. On the final restart, Biffle was lined-up
immediately behind Logano, and leveraged his way inside of the GameStop
machine in turn one, sending the Mario Kart-clad Toyota up the racetrack.

What's Next:  Joey and the GameStop car will be on-track again at Bristol
(Tenn.) Motor Speedway for the Scott's Turf Builder 300. The Nationwide
Series race can be seen Saturday, March 20 at 2 pm ET on ABC-TV.

Race Notes
Pit Stops:            Four pit stops with three of those in a time of
13.6 seconds or less.
Best Stop:         Lap 34 (Stop No. 1), Four tires, fuel and wedge
adjustment / 13.1 seconds
Point Standings: Second place (After two of 35 races) Logano will not
compete in next week's Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas.