Joey Logano Wins Daytona 500 And Ford Sweeps The Weekend
The Blue Oval was strong in Daytona, Florida this past weekend as Joey Logano scored big winning his first NASCAR Daytona 500 in his Shell/Pennzoil-backed Roger Penske-owned #22 Ford Fusion. Just a day earlier, Ryan Reed drove his Roush Fenway Ford Mustang to victory in the NASCAR Xfinity series race at the famous Superspeedway (located just 20 minutes from Brothers Performance) and Friday night, the young Tyler Reddick scored a win in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in his Ford F-150 owned by Brad Keselowski. Yes, Joey Logano Wins Daytona 500 And Ford Sweeps The Weekend.
“What an amazing moment. Wow. To win this race is just amazing,” exclaimed Logano. “I have the best team on pit road for sure. These guys are awesome. My spotter did a great job giving me the information I need to get our front and stay out front before that last caution and be able to have a good restart there at the end. I knew I had the 15 behind me and Clint Bowyer was the best pusher I could find out there and was able to push me to the lead and I knew I wanted the outside to make sure he was behind me to work up there again.”
As with most of the restrictor-plate races, the field was packed tight in the closing laps, as Logono’s bright yellow Ford Fusion led the charging pack. A late-race caution caused a restart with just three laps to go. Logano selected the outside lane (the leader can restart from the inside or the outside), which placed him in front of Clint Bowyer. Bowyer gave Logano a shove on “Green” and Logano cleared the field. Clearing the field on a big track isn’t always a good thing, since the drafting cars can often slingshot past a lone car. But the field never got the chance. Logano's competitors fanned out three-wide, and the Ford expanded the gap. Finally, the leaders took the “White” flag signaling one lap to go, but before they could complete the lap, caution flew as Jeff Gordon was hit and spun out, securing the win for Ford and Joey Logano.
“You see cars, a lot of cars and I saw that we were single file the first three cars and I knew that was a good thing because it would be harder for them to form a run,” said the 24-year old Logano. “Then I saw them crash in the mirror, but I had a distance to go and I thought that was good because it was still going to be harder for them to catch up without as many cars in the pack. Then the caution came out anyway. That feeling of winning the Daytona 500, I can’t explain how cool this is. I said in an interview that this was our worst race track last year and we worked really hard to figure out how we could get better at it and all the hard work got us the win today.”
Ford Fast Facts:
- Logano’s win in the Daytona 500 was the 14th overall for Ford in “The Great American Race.”
- First time Ford has swept all of NASCAR’s top three touring divisions in the same weekend since last August at Bristol Motor Speedway.
- Ford remains undefeated at Daytona International Speedway in 2015, running its streak to four with today’s win. In addition to winning the NASCAR Camping World Truck and NASCAR XFINITY Series races this weekend, Ford also won the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona last month.
- In addition, this is the first time Ford has swept the NASCAR Camping World Truck, NASCAR XFINITY and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races during Speedweeks.
- Reed’s win marks Ford’s 220th NASCAR XFINITY Series victory and the first for Roush Fenway Racing at Daytona International Speedway.
- Reed is the 37th different driver to win a NASCAR XFINITY Series race with Ford and the first since his teammate, Chris Buescher, did it last year at Mid-Ohio.
