At Fontana, fifth place feels like a victory for Logano

FONTANA, Calif. -- Joey Logano did not relish the idea of coming back to Auto Club Speedway.

Not in the Sprint Cup car, at least, and not after a finish of 26th in last season's spring race that left the then-rookie questioning his own confidence. Sunday, though was a different experience entirely, a fifth-place result that gave some indication of just how far the 19-year-old has come over the past 12 months.

"I was not excited to come here," Logano admitted. "Maybe in the Nationwide car I was, because we won here last time. The Cup car, I was kind of skeptical just to see what was going to happen. We unloaded good and then we went back on Saturday, just never found a handle on it again. We got it right there at the end. It was the best the car handled, maybe because it was closest to the front and we had more clean air. That's a big deal, and I'm very happy. It feels like a win after a year ago with what we had. It definitely feels great."

The yellow stripes may no longer adorn the back bumpers of his No. 20 car, and he may have claimed a victory in a rain-shortened Sprint Cup event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last summer, but California showed that the young driver's education still continues. How different is Logano from the rookie who came to Auto Club Speedway last season?

"Night and day," he said. "I say that now, but it's cool to see all the hard work, the studying tape and looking at notes, everything we went through last year struggling. I got down on myself. So it's cool to come back and see all the hard work pay off. That's motivating, that's why it feels like a win. We can see the front, now we've just got to get there."

To crew chief Greg Zipadelli, the reason for the improvement is clear -- Logano now has the time and ability to focus on details that were superseded by other priorities last year. He was so busy trying to learn, he wasn't always able to help his Joe Gibbs Racing team make the car better. Now, he can.

"He did a lot better job feeding us information, and I thought we did a lot better job of making adjustments because of that," said Zipadelli, who won two championships with Logano's predecessor, Tony Stewart. "Last year he wasn't sure if he was going to make it or not, and the pressure was on him. This year, it's business, you know what I mean? I think there's some confidence that comes from that."

The fifth-place result in Southern California was a result of effort. Zipadelli said the No. 20 car was good Friday, but went awry in final practice Saturday. Over pizza that night, the crew chief and his engineers drew up a strategy that they hoped would improve the vehicle as the event went along. Logano ran consistently in the top 20 all day, moved into the top-10 with 25 laps remaining, and improved enough from there to record his fourth top-five finish in NASCAR's premier division and his first at the 2-mile track.

"I think Zippy did a good job keeping up with the race track," said Logano, coming off a 20th-place finish in the Daytona 500. "He made great pit calls all day and, [I knew] what part of the race track we need the most. Me and Zip talked about that this week. I feel like we struggled a little bit with that in Daytona, and to come back this week after having a long talk to try to figure things out, to be able to come out with a top-five, you've got to be pleased with that."

It also helped ease the sting from Saturday's Nationwide Series event, where Logano led 160 laps but got taken out on the last restart.

"I was ready to shoot myself [Saturday]," he said, laughing. Conversely, Sunday felt like a win, even if another driver was in Victory Lane.