Captain's Corner - Joey Logano goes for history at The Glen
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Joey Logano and Team Penske have a chance to make history in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.
Logano will be attempting to become the first driver in series history to win three consecutive races from the pole at the Glen.
He won the pole and race in each of the last two seasons on his way to victory in Penske’s No. 12 Ford. He and teammate Brad Keselowski (driving the No. 22 Ford) are both entered in Saturday’s race.
“It’s pretty impressive. Last year, everyone here at Team Penske was pretty proud to be on the front row – that was two years in a row that we’ve had the Nos. 12 and 22 on the front row,” Logano’s crew chief in Saturday’s race, Brian Wilson, told Motorsport.com.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to keep that going. It looks like the field for this race may be a lot tougher. You have (Kevin) Harvick in the No. 41, Kyle (Busch) is back in the No. 18, Erik Jones in the No. 20, (Kyle) Larson in the No. 42.
“They certainly aren’t going to hand it to us so we’re all going into this weekend knowing we’re going to have to make the cars a little bit better than they were last year.”
Just winning the race a third consecutive year would put Logano in impressive company.
The only others to win three Xfinity races in a row at the Glen were Terry Labonte (1994-96) and Marcos Ambrose (2008-10).
“We feel our cars are better than they were last year. We feel we have some set-ups items that we can try,” Wilson said. “The No. 22 is going to start with a few items that are a little bit different and we’re going to basically start with last year’s set-up.”
Another interesting side note should Logano win a third consecutive race – he will have done it with three different crew chiefs.
Wilson is leading the team this week, while Todd Gordon did in 2015 and Greg Erwin did last season. Wilson and Logano have won two Xfinity races together – last fall at Charlotte and this spring at Las Vegas.
“Having been a race engineer on the Cup side previously, I had been able to witness how Joey worked and interacted with Todd (Gordon) and all the guys on the No. 22 Cup car,” Wilson said. “Then, being able to work with him as a crew chief, it was interesting to see his approach to things.
“He’s very much a motivator and an up-beat guy. He very much wants to focus on being a great driver. He’ll give you feedback and push you but he really leaves the strategy and the set-up stuff to the crew chief.”
“My first win last year came with him at Charlotte and we were able to win this year at Las Vegas. Those are some pretty special moments in my career, to be able to do that and to have Joey be the guy was pretty cool.”
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