NASCAR Cup Series

Joey Logano battles through major adversity for solid Pocono finish

Published Jun. 7, 2015 7:01 p.m. ET

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When the statisticians look back at Sunday's Axalta "We Paint Winners" 400 at Pocono Raceway, it will appear as if Joey Logano had a smooth day driving from the 11th starting spot to a fourth-place finish.

However, there was much more to the story of Logano's seventh top-five finish of the season.

The Daytona 500 champion's day got off to a rough start when he was forced to give up his 11th starting spot and drop to the rear of the field for the start of the race, after the team changed the rear-end gear prior to the green flag.

With a fast Team Penske Ford, Logano made his way halfway through the field when he came to pit road for the first time under green flag conditions on Lap 22. However, Logano was too fast on pit road and had to serve a pass-through penalty on Lap 25.

Mired deep in the field yet again, Logano went to work making up for lost ground. After falling a lap down to the race leaders, Logano was able to take the wave-around to get back on the lead lap when the first caution of the day flew on Lap 51.

Logano brought the car to pit road one lap after taking the green flag on Lap 55, and was able to catch back up to the field when the second caution of the day came out for an incident involving Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on Lap 70.

Slowly but surely, Logano and crew chief Todd Gordon worked on the car and made their way back through the field, racing just outside the top 10 at the 100-lap mark of the 160-lap event.

Logano's No. 22 Ford really came to life over the final 60 laps, creeping closer and closer to the front.

When the race went back to green for the final 16 laps, Logano was lined up second alongside Martin Truex Jr. No match for the eventual race winner, Logano held on to finish fourth after being passed by Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson in the closing laps.

While it was not a win, Logano was pleased with the team's hard work to overcome setbacks both before and during the race.

"I'm happy with the way it ended," Logano said. "We didn't have a very fast Shell/Pennzoil Ford from the get-go when we unloaded here, but we kept fighting hard. This was one of those blue-collar days, just working hard all day on the car, and on pit road the guys did a good job making my car faster and got to where we were a top-five car at the end.

"We were maybe a little better than the 48 (Johnson), but had nothing for the 4 (Harvick) and the 78 (Truex)," he said. "Those guys have been rocket ships each and every week, and we've got to figure out a way to catch up to them -- figure out what they're doing or try to come up with our own way -- something, but they're really fast right now."

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