FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT INFO:
Jeremy Troiano, (704) 726-6849
jeremy.troiano@mcg-sports.com
Joey Logano / No. 20 GameStop Toyota Preview Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway
#20 GameStop Toyota News, Notes & Paint Scheme:
· GameStop will return to the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota this coming weekend at Kentucky Speedway. As part of the Meijer 300 / Kentucky Speedway weekend, GameStop Racing will host 200 GameStop employees at the track with tickets, lunch and other special events courtesy of Nationwide. In addition, GameStop will host two store managers and their guests in the pit area during the Meijer 300 weekend. The managers were chosen as part of an in-house contest that asked managers to write an essay on why they are passionate about GameStop’s racing program and the sponsorship of Joey Logano.
· Joey Logano will be returning to his most successful track on the NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule. Logano is the two-time defending race winner and pole sitter at the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway. Logano earned his first-career NASCAR Nationwide Series win at Kentucky in 2008 in just his third career series start. The victory put Logano in the NASCAR history books as the youngest Nationwide Series race winner at 18 years and 21 days old. In 2009, Logano defended his victory by once again sweeping the pole and race, passing teammate Kyle Busch late to pick up the victory. The 2010 Meijer 300 will mark Logano’s third career start at the Sparta, KY track.
· Nintendo’s Super Mario Galaxy™ 2 will be the featured video game on the #20 GameStop Toyota during the Meijer 300. Released on May 23, Super Mario Galaxy 2 enhances the action with an array of new power-ups, gravity-defying levels and inventive game options. For the first time in this series, players can hop on the back of Mario's pal, Yoshi™, who aids him on his quest in select stages. Also, players now can choose to play as Mario or later in the game in select stages as his brother, Luigi™. The game is made exclusively for the Wii™ console. Find out more about Super Mario Galaxy 2 by visiting www.gamestop.com or www.supermariogalaxy.com.
· Fans of GameStop Racing on Twitter (@GameStopRacing) will have a chance to win an autographed copy of the game Super Mario Galaxy 2 the week leading up to the Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway.
· The Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway will mark the first event of the season where Joey will perform double-duty while racing at two different tracks in two different states. Joey will practice and qualify at Michigan International Speedway on Friday in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series before taking a flight and helicopter ride to Kentucky to practice Friday night. He will return to Michigan Friday night, compete in Happy Hour practice Saturday morning for the Sprint Cup Series, and then make his way back to Kentucky to qualify and race the #20 GameStop Toyota. JGR development driver Matt DiBenedetto will be on standby for Joey.
· Logano made his 50th career NASCAR Nationwide Series start two weeks ago at Charlotte Motor Speedway, coming home third. In his 50 starts, Logano has earned six victories (a 12% winning percentage, 15th on the all-time Nationwide Series career list), 22 top-five finishes and 38 top-10s. In just nine starts in 2010, Logano has earned four top-five finishes and eight top 10s. Despite only running nine of the first 13 races of the season, Logano finds himself eighth in the point standings. Logano is one of only two drivers in the top 25 in the point standings who have run less than 10 events this season.
· Since Logano’s last start behind the wheel of the GameStop Toyota, the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing team has raced their way to third in the NASCAR Nationwide Series owner standings, just 107 points out of the top spot. The #20 team picked up third first win of the season at Darlington with Denny Hamlin behind the wheel. It marked the first-career win as a crew chief for Kevin Kidd.
· GameStop store #5074, located in Lexington, South Carolina, will be the featured store on the lower rear quarter panel. In addition, the GameStop show car will make stops around the Louisville and Cincinnati area during race week.
· The #20 Joe Gibbs Racing team will run chassis #2089 (back up chassis #2093) at Kentucky. It is the same chassis that Logano won with at Kentucky in 2009. In fact, four of Logano’s five wins during the 2009 season came driving chassis #2089 (Kentucky, Chicago, Kansas and California).
Logano’s Season-To-Date NASCAR Nationwide Series Stats:
|
Starts
|
Wins
|
Top 5
|
Top 10
|
Poles
|
Laps Led
|
Earnings
|
Avg. Start
|
Avg. Finish
|
|
9
|
0
|
4
|
8
|
3
|
347
|
$307,185
|
5.6
|
6.3
|
Logano’s Career NASCAR Nationwide Series Stats:
|
Starts
|
Wins
|
Top 5
|
Top 10
|
Poles
|
Laps Led
|
Earnings
|
Avg. Start
|
Avg. Finish
|
|
50
|
6
|
22
|
38
|
10
|
1079
|
$1,904,164
|
8.1
|
8.0
|
Logano’s Career NASCAR Nationwide Series Stats at Kentucky:
|
Starts
|
Wins
|
Top 5
|
Top 10
|
Poles
|
Laps Led
|
Earnings
|
Avg. Start
|
Avg. Finish
|
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
96
|
$199,483
|
1
|
1
|
Joey Logano Quotes:
”I’m pumped to head back to Kentucky Speedway. That place holds a lot of special memories for me. It’s the track that I got my first Nationwide Series win at. It’s the track that I first tested a Sprint Cup car at. It’s my most successful track. There are not a lot of drivers out there that can go to a track more than once and say that they are batting 1,000. But that is what we’ve got at Kentucky. In two races there, we’ve gotten two poles and two wins. And I have no doubt that we can go there and make it three poles and three wins. But it won’t be easy - it never is. I think if we go to the track and just try to run our race, build upon what we’ve done there that last two years, then it should be our race to learn. But there will be a lot of guys gunning for us, you can bet that.
“I’m excited to be teamed back up with GameStop. They’ve been with me for all of my wins in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and it always seems odd to not be in the #20 GameStop Toyota. Plus, they’ve got a really cool game on the car this week in Super Mario Galaxy 2. Any time we have Mario on the car, people just seem to love it. I’ve had a lot of great looking cars, but the Mario ones are always some of my favorites. It is hard to not smile when you look at the car with Mario and his buddy Yoshi. Plus, I’ve gotten a chance to play the game and it’s a lot of fun. And while I haven’t gotten that good playing the game yet, I like to think I’m pretty good at Kentucky, so maybe we can get Mario back to Victory Lane with us.
Kevin Kidd Quotes:
“Kentucky is a fun place to go to, both as a driver and as a crew chief. I really like the facilities and the show that they put on there is really second to none. Obviously, we tend to run real well there and we would certainly like to keep that going this year.
“The track is really wide on the exits, which is unusual to most intermediate tracks that we race at. That offers a lot of racing room and generally makes for a competitive race. The most challenging part of the track is that it continually wears out over the harsh winters and, as a result, it seems to get bumpier every season. I think the #20 GameStop Toyota will be good there as we build off of our past success.”
No. 20 GameStop Toyota / Joe Gibbs Racing Team
Crew Chief – Kevin Kidd Car Chief – Nate Bellows
Engine Builder – Mark Cronquist Lead Engineer – Mike Lorusso
Engine Specialist – Dan Bajek Spotter – Mark Robertson
Jackman – TJ Ford Front Tire Changer – Terry Spalding
Front Tire Carrier – Aaron Shields Gas Man – Chris Webb
Rear Tire Changer – Chris McMullen Rear Tire Carrier – Matt Tyrell
Catch Can – Brian Larson Truck Driver – George Hoult
Tire Specialist – Ryan Martin Shock Specialist – Joel Weidman
Mechanics – Matt Aschbrenner & Ben Chase
|