Photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR
Coming off a solid sophomore season driving the Home Depot/Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Joey Logano looked to further establish himself among the very best in NASCAR's Sprint Cup series. Unfortunately, 2011 proved to be a struggle all season long for the 21 year old Connecticut driver. While Logano did score two poles in 2011, he only managed to earn four top five and six top 10 finishes, a big disappointment for a team that was considered to be one of the very best teams in all of NASCAR.
Logano and his Gibbs team were given an indication as to how their season would go from the very start of the year in the Daytona 500. Logano was forced to go to a backup car forcing him to start at the rear of the field for the Great American Race. Logano scored his first top 10 at Talladega in the Aaron's 499 and followed it up a few races later with a solid third place run in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. Things appeared to be on the upswing for the team at the season's mid-point as Logano won the pole for the event at Infineon posting a sixth and followed it up with finishes of third at Daytona in the Coke Zero 400 and what would be a season best finish of fourth in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 in New Hampshire. Logano earned his second pole of the year at Pocono in the Good Sam RV Insurance 500 had his final top five and top 10 of the year in the next race at Watkins Glen.
Logano was only black flagged by NASCAR twice in 2011, however one of the two events proved rather costly. In the race at Auto Club Speedway, Logano jumped the race's final restart costing him a top five finish. JGR seemed to have engine problems all year long between their three Cup teams and Logano was a victim of having to change engines prior to the race on three occasions. The Home Depot pit crew was penalized three times on the year and twice in the Kobalt Tools 500 at Las Vegas for having too many members over the pit wall.
2011 Statistics For Joey Logano
24th in Sprint Cup standings
4 top 5s
6 top 10s
Best Finish: 4th in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301
58 laps led
2011 Penalty Report For Joey Logano
Race 1 - Pre-Race to the rear, tail end, backup car
Race 2 - Pitting before pit road is open, Garage
Race 3 - Outside half of the pit box tire violation/Team member not in contact with the outside tire, pass thru
Race 5 - Pre-Race to the rear, tail end; Jumping the restart, pass thru
Race 7 - Too many crewmember(s) in contact with pit service area, tail end; Too many crewmember(s) in contact with pit service area, tail end
Race 10 - Pitting before pit road is open, Garage
Race 11 - Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
Race 15 - Pre-Race to the rear, tail end
Race 32 - Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
Race 33 - Pitting before pit road is open, Tail of Field; Pitting out of order, Tail of Field