Joey Logano claims Richmond track characteristics hid Ford Mustangs’ weaknesses on Sunday
The Ford teams have been able to secure just three wins so far this seaosn.
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Joey Logano (Credits: @NASCAR/Twitter)
The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season hasn’t treated the Ford teams well. Defending champion Joey Logano’s manufacturing team has seen only three of their cars on the victory lane this season. The first win came in Atlanta from the champions himself, and the second win was scored by his teammate Ryna Blaney in Charlotte.
On Sunday at Richmond, Chris Buescher scored the third win of Fords in the 2023 seaosn. He was able to dominate the race despite starting on P26. He led 88 laps and went on secure his third career win. He becomes the 12th different driver to lock a last-16 spot with a win. Of the 12 winners, four are Toyota drivers, and five are Chevy drivers. One of the Chevy drivers is Shane Van Gisvbergan, who won on his part-time debut with Trackhouse in Chicago.
When asked about Fords’ impressive day at Richmond and is sit the right step toward ending their struggles, he said that the track’s lack of grip actually helped them to get the victory. Alongside Buescher, his boss Brad Keselowski had a strong day as he finished P6 and led 102 laps. There were two more Fords on top with the No:17. Logano finished P4, and Ryan Preece of SHR P5. Kevin Harvick and Aric Almirola finished inside the top 10 with SHR.
“I think our weaknesses were hidden today by the lack of grip in the racetrack, mechanical grip seems to come in. It’s hard to put the power down as it is. I think just where our weaknesses are were masked. I’m glad Chris was able to capitalize on it, and a Ford got into Victory Lane. We need to get more of ’em in there. Nice to see one in Victory Lane right now,” Logano told the media after the race.
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Joey Logano admitted that the No:22 team was way off the leaders
Logano had a pretty disappointing qualifying on Saturday. He started outside the top 20 in P23, two places ahead of race winner Buescher. He was able to e navigate his way up the field and made a few mistakes along the way.
In a race where drivers found it hard to make passes, he was able to hang on to the bottom half of the top for the majority of the race. On the back of a good restart, he got to P3 but lost a spot to former teammate Kyle Busch. In the end, it was a good result for the team to build upon for the playoffs and Cup defense.
“We weren’t that bad with the Shell-Pennzoil Mustang. Just a little bit off from the best cars. Really couldn’t hang. If you put us at fifth, we could probably hang at fifth. Just qualifying as poorly as we did, slowly getting our way up there, a couple setbacks during the race, kind of made us hang around 7th and 10th place range for a little bit,” Logano said.
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