"It was a good run," said Logano. "The Home Depot Team battled hard all day. Restrictor place racing is interesting. You ride around the first part of the race and you're making sure that you don't wreck. Then you work to make friends so at the end of the race you have people to work with and will work with you. At the end of the run we just kept pressing it and pressing it, hoping something would come out of it. I had a good restart pushing the 9 and he was pushing that whole row ahead. That was really what got the third-place finish. It would have been interesting if had one more lap that's for sure [smiles]. You never know. I think anything could have happened."
The Home Depot Team ran 27 laps in the draft during its first practice on Friday. The team determined the car was balanced, and with the drafting getting aggressive on the track during practice, sat out the final practice session. Rain fell over the track on Saturday and canceled qualifying, so the 43-car field lined up by points for the start of the 500-mile race with Logano in 20th for the green flag.
It took just five laps for the first caution of the race to wave and Logano had already drafted his way into the top 10. Racing resumed on lap eight with The Home Depot Toyota in the eighth position. The first round of green-flag stops began on lap 40 and Logano brought the car down pit road on lap 41 for right-side tires and fuel. Not everyone had pitted, so Logano was scored a lap down when the caution waved on lap 50. Fortunately, he was the recipient of NASCAR's free pass back onto the lead lap. After four fresh tires and a chassis adjustment, Logano restarted in the 20th position.
It was single-file racing for the majority of the race with the exception of the laps that followed a double-file restart. Logano worked on drafting in different lines around the track and with different drafting partners. A second round of green flag stops began on lap 92 and were completed by lap 101. Logano found himself in the lead draft running in the fourth position. NASCAR waved the yellow flag for debris on lap 106 and crew chief Greg Zipadelli called for fuel only on the team's pit stop. It moved Logano to second for the restart on lap 108. Logano and teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch soon found themselves at the front of the field. Logano led lap 115 before being shuffled back into the pack.
Logano's teammate Hamlin brought out the caution on lap 137 when he lost the engine in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Zipadelli knew when they pitted on lap 140 they would be very close on fuel to make it to the end of the race. NASCAR gave the one-to-go sign, and Zipadelli called the 19-year-old driver down pit road to top off the fuel cell. NASCAR waved off the restart, so again Logano pulled down pit road for a splash of gas on lap 142 before racing resumed on lap 143. Zipadelli's decision would pay large dividends in the closing laps of the race.
Racing resume on lap 143 with Logano back in the 24th position. With 30 laps to go, the entire field was single file. Ten laps later the racing became three and four-wide again and extremely dicey. Logano drafted his way up to seventh when the caution flew on lap 183. A multi-car wreck broke out behind Logano which sent the No. 39 car tumbling down the track to land on its roof. NASCAR red flagged the race while emergency workers flipped the car back up on its tires, and cut driver Ryan Newman out of his car. The driver walked away and was released shortly after a mandatory trip to the infield care center.
It took several laps after the red flag was lifted and the yellow flag was displayed to get the race restarted as cars continuously ran out of fuel on the caution laps, including Logano's teammate Busch. Zipadelli and Logano's spotter coaxed the rookie to save fuel and to stay on the flat part of the track until the green flag waved on lap 189 for a green/white/checker finish. A second multi-car wreck broke out before the checkered flag waved freezing the field. Logano had enough gasoline in The Home Depot Toyota's fuel cell to take the checkered flag in the third position behind the No. 26 and 9 cars.
"I tried to make as many friends out there as I could for the end of the race," said Logano. "A lot of it is just being in the right place at the right time, missing the wrecks and being ahead of it all. Overall it was a really good day for The Home Depot Team. It seemed like the last restart I just got behind Kasey (Kahne) and started shoving him and he was able to push the 26 ahead and got our whole lane going. To come out third after a day like that is great."
Logano earned Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the fourth-consecutive race. It was the driver's second top-five finish over the last three races and moved him up to 19th in the Sprint Cup standings. He is just 25 points out of 18th and 45 points behind Jeff Burton in 17th. His teammates Busch and Hamlin finished 15th and 38th respectively.
