Joey Logano, a three-time winner this season in the Sprint Cup Series, has his best chance yet to win a Sprint Cup title. He’s the fifth seed of 16 drivers in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup and enters the Chase with plenty of momentum.
In the past seven races, he’s had six finishes of sixth or better including a win at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“I feel like this is my best shot ever,” he said. “I’ve got the best cars I’ve ever had, and my team’s been right on top of things, plus we have momentum on our side.”
Logano said it’s a big bonus to be working alongside his fellow Team Penske driver Brad Keselowski, who led the regular season with four victories and enters the Chase as the No. 1 seed.
“Our teams work really well together,” he said. “We can see what they’re doing, and they can see what we’re doing. It’s been good for all of Team Penske.”
A switch in crews for the Chase: In a move that comes as no surprise, Stewart-Haas Racing switched the pit crews of the No. 4 and No. 14 team, a move that is intended to address the pit-road mistakes that have plagued Kevin Harvick's No. 4 team this season.
With Harvick in the Chase and Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14, not among the 16 running for the title, the swap appears to put Harvick in a better position to compete for the championship, although his old crew did deliver him two regular-season wins.
“We made this change in the best interests of the entire organization,” Greg Zipadelli, vice president of competition, Stewart-Haas Racing, said in a team release. “Our primary goal is to win races and championships, and this pit-crew swap provides championship experience to the No. 4 team and continued race-winning experience to the No. 14 team.”
Harvick inherits the crew that worked on Stewart’s championship team in 2011. They are front tire-changer Ira Jo Hussey, rear tire-changer Daniel Smith, front tire-carrier Todd Drakulich, rear tire-carrier Mike Morneau and jackman Mike Casto.
Moving to Stewart’s team are front tire-changer Bryan Jacobsen and his carrier Brett Morrell, rear tire-changer Jonathan Sherman and his carrier Josh Sobecki, and jackman Getty Cavitt Jr.
Harvick, who enters this Chase seeded sixth, is making his seventh Chase appearance and fifth consecutive. All of his earlier Chase appearances were with his previous team, Richard Childress Racing. He finished fourth in his first Chase in 2006, 10th in 2007, fourth in 2008, third in 2010, third in 2011, eighth in 2012 and third in 2013.
Hot head: Jimmie Johnson said an issue with the cooling system in his helmet is to blame for him becoming dehydrated during Saturday's Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway and collapsing beside his car afterward.
“Basically it was blowing warm air,” he said in a Chevrolet release. “It’s nice to have a good idea as to what went wrong and why I got so hot in the race car.
“It’s a newer system that we’ve implemented, so we’re just going back to our old faithful system that’s worked for years and years. We should have the problem rectified.”
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