Hendrick drivers hope for good race
LONG POND - Hendrick drivers have been the class of the field at Pocono Raceway in recent years.
The quartet of Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne have won the last five races at the "Tricky Triangle" for team owner Rick Hendrick, dating back to the June 2012 race.The winner that day? Team Penske's Joey Logano, who was driving for Joe Gibbs racing at the time."I didn't even know that," Logano said.But Logano does know what it takes to get to victory lane, having won the season-opening Daytona 500.While the high banks of Daytona are a far cry from the relatively flat and long, sweeping turns at Pocono, Logano hopes recent success at the track will bode well for he and teammate Brad Keselowski this weekend in the Axalta 'We Paint Winners' 400."This is one of those race tracks where aero and horsepower come into play a lot," Logano said, "and we've seen Hendrick (cars) be very good in those departments - not that Penske isn't."I feel like we've had some fast race cars here in the past. We finished third here in the fall. Brad almost won in the spring, so we've been closer in the past, just apparently those guys (Hendrick) are a tick faster and they've had the right strategy. There's a lot that goes into winning at Pocono."Indeed.And Keselowski nearly did it last June, leading 95 laps before finishing second to Earnhardt. Keselowski appeared to be well on his way to a victory before some trash made its way to his grill, nearly causing the car to overheat and allowing Earnhardt to take advantage.Logano was strong in August's GoBowling.com 400, leading 30 laps before slotting in behind Stewart Haas-Racing's Kevin Harvick and Earnhardt, who finished the Pocono sweep with another victory.Logano said he looked back at the race last August, where he was strong early after starting from the second position."I was re-watching the race (from August) on the way up here and it's actually a pretty entertaining race to watch because the strategy just changes so much," noted Logano. "I knew (Earnhardt) Junior was gonna win the race, but I was watching just kind of how it all played out and how it all worked out and it was pretty interesting, so strategy is definitely key here.Logano knows how important having the right plan for such an unpredictable race can be."It's a big deal," he said. "Making sure we have the right one, which is always subject to change throughout the race, and making sure you can pass cars when you can and try to make that strategy work also, so you've got to have a fast car to do that. A lot of things go into winning this one."After winning Daytona in February, Logano was the model of consistency, finishing no worse than 10th in the season's first seven races.But over the past six races, Logano has an average finish of 17.8, recording a best finish of fifth twice at Richmond and Kansas, respectively.Returning to a track that he's been successful on, especially in the last three years, Logano is hoping to continue that trend this weekend."I think it's always kind of been a good race track for me before they repaved it, but I think all of those races (where we've done well) have come from the repaved race track here," he said. "We've just had a fast race car. Restarts are a big deal here, being able to make the most out of it. We've seen the restarts here obviously be crazy down into Turn 1 and into the Tunnel."That first lap or two and the way the draft works and how long the straightaways are and how wide the straightaways are just always gets crazy. Having a good car there is important, and like I said, things have kind of worked out decent for us."But top 10's aren't really what we're shooting for at this point in the season. We really want some wins."