Darlington: Joey Logano preview

The Home Depot Team Notes of Interest

* Joey Logano will meet the "Lady in Black" for the first time this weekend when he makes his NASCAR Sprint Cup debut at the 1.336-mile track. Logano did get an introduction to her by NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough last month. Yarborough drove the rookie driver around the track in a two-seater while giving him pointers on how to tame Darlington Raceway. Logano will also compete in the NASCAR Nationwide race Friday night before climbing behind the wheel of The Home Depot Toyota on Saturday.

* The Home Depot Racing Team and crew chief Greg Zipadelli have 16 starts at Darlington Raceway. It is one of the few tracks on the circuit the No. 20 team has yet to visit victory lane. The team has two top-five and eight top-10 finishes in those 16 starts. The team finished 21st in last year's May event.

* About last week: Logano turned in a solid performance at Richmond International Raceway last Saturday night to score a 19th-place finish behind the wheel of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota. He completed all 400 laps in route to his third top-20 finish of the season and moved up one spot in the standings. Logano now sits 32nd in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings, just 34 points out of 31st and 66 points out of the top 30.

* Logano increased his lead to nine points over Scott Speed in the Raybestos Rookie standings 109-100. Logano earned Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors for the seventh time this season last week at Richmond International Raceway. Last year's top rookie finished 28th in the 500- mile race at Darlington.

* The Home Depot Team is taking chassis #192 to the track this weekend for the Southern 500. Logano recently piloted this No. 20 Toyota Camry at Bristol Motor Speedway to 38th-place finish after losing a motor with less than 10 laps to go; the rookie was running 27th at the time. The No. 20 Team raced this chassis five times last year, including at Darlington Raceway.

* Testing this week: Logano and The Home Depot crew were one of several teams that participated in a two-day tire test at Daytona International Speedway on Monday and Tuesday.

Joey Logano:

"Last week was a solid day for The Home Depot Team now it's on to Darlington. This is one of those tracks I am excited to get to even though it is in an intimidating track. I attending the tire test with Denny and couldn't believe how you had to drive the cars into the corners - he was full throttle. I have talked to just about any driver I was around this week about Darlington. Any information I can gather I will take. I have heard that it isn't quite as tough as it used to be with the new asphalt, but it's still a crazy race.

"This is one of those weekends where I'm glad I'm running in the Nationwide race. I think any extra laps I can get around Darlington are important because it will take some time to really get comfortable. I had the chance to ride along with Cale Yarborough around the track last month and that may have been one of the coolest things ever. He came out in an old school firesuit and we climbed in the car together. I looked over and thought, 'Cale Yarborough is driving me around Darlington, wow.' I don't know anyone who wouldn't appreciate that opportunity."

-credit: jgr