Backstretch Motorsports

Huntersville, N.C. – Everyone wants to be the best in the neighborhood at something. Kids want to have the fastest bike. Mothers want to have the most-beautiful garden. Fathers want to be the “master griller.” It becomes a type of a badge of honor when you can protect your own turf.

The NASCAR “neighborhood” is the Charlotte, N.C. area. An overwhelming majority of teams and employees call this area home. It was also the site of the first NASCAR race in 1949. The racing tends to take on a different meaning when it becomes Charlotte’s turn to host the action, as it does twice a year at the 1.5-mile track just outside the city limits. Bragging rights take the place of points and pride takes the place of trophies and prize money.

Joey Logano and the No. 20 GameStop Toyota team will head into this weekend’s race looking to continue their success on “intermediate” tracks, like Charlotte. Logano picked up his first career Nationwide Series win at the Kentucky Speedway in 2008 and his second at the Nashville Superspeedway in April. Both tracks are similar in size and shape to Charlotte.

Slow And Steady Really May Win The Race — Just Ask Joey

Slowly – and quietly – Logano is living up to the unbelievable hype that surrounded him as soon as the belts snapped him into his first NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Dover International Speedway last season.

It was one year ago on May 24 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway that he celebrated his 18th birthday, signaling the start to his national series career.

He won quickly – it took only three races for him to claim his first victory in the NASCAR Nationwide race at Kentucky Speedway – but 2009 brought new challenges. Logano joined the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on a full-time basis and early polls said the jump might have been harder than expected.

But slowly, he has come around on the NASCAR Sprint Cup side, scoring two top 10s in the last three races.

He has the NASCAR Nationwide Series to thank for that. Except for one race this year – at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Logano has pulled double duty all season. Despite missing that one race, he’s fourth in the standings, 199 points out of first.

It’s that kind of seat time that hastened the learning curve (see: Juan Pablo Montoya, 2007). It’s also the confidence that bloomed with each passing successful NASCAR Nationwide race. Ask David Ragan (No. 6 Discount Tire Ford), who was a prime example in 2007-08.

Figure on another similar scenario this weekend in Charlotte.

In his only LMS race last season, Logano thrived racing against a number of double-duty drivers. His 14th-place finish last October was solid, but the result itself was not indicative of how he actually performed throughout the event.

In that race, Logano had a Driver Rating of 101.4, an Average Running Position of 10.8, 12 Fastest Laps Run and 32 laps led.

Also on the youngster front – watch for a strong run from Raybestos Rookie Scott Lagasse Jr. (No. 11 America’s Incredible Pizza Co. Toyota).

Lagasse scored a 13th-place finish in his only LMS race, also last October. In that event, he had a Driver Rating of 76.0 and an Average Running Position of 18.9, solid stats for a first-time visit.

Joey Logano Quotes

“Charlotte is one of the coolest places to race. I’m from Connecticut and I still consider Loudon my ‘home’ track, but I live in the Charlotte area now and that puts a special meaning on this place. This is the center of our sport. Everyone wants to win here so badly because it gives you huge bragging rights over the other drivers. The trophy and the points are nice, but I think we would all race for nothing at Charlotte. It’s a lot like Darlington with the amount of history that it has. It also gives you a nice break after the start of the season where you’re still racing, but at the same time you are home for two weeks. There is just a lot to look forward to when we’re racing at Charlotte.”

“To win at Charlotte would be one of the biggest moments of my career. The GameStop Toyota has been strong on the 1.5 to 2-mile tracks this year so we feel pretty confident going into Saturday’s race. We qualified really well last fall and led quite a few laps. Hopefully we’ll get a better finish than we did in that race because we had a car to win, for sure. With the tapered carburetor spacer on these cars you have to make sure that you keep your momentum up every lap. Charlotte has developed a second, and sometimes third, groove that gives you plenty of room to race and pass. Dave Rogers (crew chief) does a great job in giving me a car that I can move around the track with and we’ve been able to grab some good finishes because of that.”
Noteworthy

◦ The No. 20 JGR Toyota finished second in the 2008 edition of this event.

◦ The No. 20 JGR Toyota has competed in 13 Nationwide Series events at Charlotte, garnering one win, five top-5 finishes and six top-10 finishes.

◦ Logano started fourth and finished 14th in the 2008 “fall” race at Charlotte, his first career start at the track.

◦ Though not running a full season, Logano sits fourth in the Nationwide Series standings. He did not race at Las Vegas.

◦ The Joe Gibbs Racing headquarters sits 16 miles from the speedway in Charlotte.

No. 20 GameStop Toyota

Season Stats

Wins: 1
Poles: 0
Top 5: 4
Top 10: 6
Best Start: 2
Best Fin: 1
Avg. Start: 8.4
Avg. Fin: 7.8

Race Information
Series: Nationwide Series
Race: Carquest Auto Parts 300
Distance: 300 miles
Laps: 200 laps
Race No. 11 of 35
Location: Concord, N.C.

Chassis Info

Primary: JGR #2093
History: Logano drove this car to Victory Lane at Nashville in April. That was the first race for the chassis.

Backup: JGR #2089

Broadcast Information

Thursday
Practice 1: 1:00 PM EDT, Speed
Practice 2: 6:00 PM EDT, Speed

Saturday
Qualifying: 3:30 PM EDT, Speed
Race: 7:00 PM EDT
TV: ESPN2
Radio: PRN and Sirius