Ford Michigan 2 (Joey Logano Press Conference)

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion (Finished 1st) – “We are getting closer to the Chase. This was a hard fought win throughout the whole 22 Penske team. We have gone through a lot this season and it is well deserved. Todd Gordon and all the guys gave me a great car today that was capable of winning and they kept tuning it in and getting it a little better and keeping me up front with the right strategy. It was up to me on the last restart and I had to be very aggressive to get by the 29 and do what I had to do and here we are. What a great place to win and a great time to win being in Ford’s back yard and coming up to the Chase like this. Being in Roger’s back yard it was a great opportunity for me and I am glad we delivered.”

TODD GORDON, crew chief, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion –  TALK ABOUT THE STRATEGY TODAY. “It started on Friday. The race team did a fabulous job and Joey did a great job. Sitting on the pole on Friday got us a good pit stall and allowed us to make different calls and maintain track position. Clean air plays a lot of big deal here. Joey drove his butt off here. Once we got to the last stop he did some awesome things on the track. I am proud of this race team.”

ROGER PENSKE, owner, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – MICHIGAN HOLDS A SPECIAL PLACE IN YOUR HEART. TALK ABOUT WHAT THIS WIN MEANS. “As I go back 30 years or so at this track this is one of the biggest wins. With Joey coming on board and his first win in the Shell Pennzoil car and our relationship now with Ford. It is my home state, home track and Detroit is my city. You couldn’t put it all together like we did today. To have Joey on board with Brad it is a team effort. Todd and Paul Wolfe is a team effort. Brad even said today that Joey had a better car and they want to put a couple of his setups on. They are working together and it is a team effort. I want to thank Jamie Allison and Raj here for the support Ford is giving us. We have been lacking on delivering what we said we would deliver when they signed us up. It makes me feel pretty good that at least we can shake their hand in victory lane.”

JAMIE ALLISON, director, Ford Racing – TALK ABOUT BEING THE FIRST WINNER OF THE INAUGURAL MICHIGAN HERITAGE MANUFACTURERS TROPHY. “Obviously we are very honored to receive the first manufacturers trophy. It is special. Every win is special but to win here in front of our employees and fans and with our team just makes it even more important. With me here is our vice president of product development, Raj Nair, who without his support we at Ford can’t provide the tools and technical support our teams need to excel on the track.”

RAJ NAIR, vice president, product development Ford Motor Company – “It is always great to win at home. I want to thank Joey. We have such great partners with Roger and Penske Racing and Roush Yates. Winning at home in a Ford Fusion is our dream and thanks to great partners we have.”

JOEY, A LOT OF THINGS CAN CHANGE BUT HOW DO YOU APPROACH THE NEXT THREE RACES NOW? “I think the key is being consistent. It is something Todd and I talk about before each weekend on how we will approach the weekend and how aggressive we need to be. We decided we needed a win a couple of weeks ago. So we got one. That is what we wanted to do. We should decide to get more wins. Maybe we will win more. We were trying to figure out how aggressive we needed to be and I am sure it is a conversation we will have this week. As long as we are consistent and keep knocking off top-10’s like this team has been doing, if we get another win yeah it will really help us but it is definitely a great help for our Chase hopes. I also want to say to Lisa and Paul and Heidi, I met them a year ago to talk about getting into this car and it just is kind of ironic a year later here we are in victory lane and getting a pole. Thank you for taking a chance with me.”

TODD, HOW MUCH DID YOU CHANGE THE CAR FROM FRIDAY TO TODAY TO ENSURE YOU HAD WHAT TURNED OUT TO BE AS MARVELOUS A RUN AS YOU GOT? “We definitely had two different packages, a qualifying and race package. Fortunately for us with the way Friday practice rolled out we started out in race package and had good speed. There are definitely different parts to it. This Gen 6 car has kind of created more separation there and you need two packages, one that goes fast for qualifying and one that races really well and I think Joey did a great job with that today.”

JOEY, THE WAY YOU STARTED IN MARCH WITH THE HAMLIN THING AND GOING THROUGH THAT AND THE UPS AND DOWNS OF THE POINTS, HAS IT MADE YOU MORE BATTLE TESTED FOR THE STRETCH RUN? “If that doesn’t toughen you up, nothing does. This team has gone through a lot this season and there are other things we have gone through. They don’t quite. They keep pushing hard and we have to do that for years to come, not just the rest of this season or four races. We have to do it as long as we are together and hopefully that is a very long time. If we keep doing this it will be.”

ROGER, DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU WERE TAKING A CHANCE ON JOEY WHEN YOU HIRED HIM? “As we look at drivers we do this in conjunction with our sponsors and obviously we had a little rough time with the first two drivers we had in the Shell Pennzoil car. I said to Lisa Davis and the team that I wanted to make the right choice here. I think that as Joey said, it was a year ago that he had a chance to meet with the Shell and Pennzoil people. We knew he was young, had been a winner, was focused and wanted to race. I think those are the things that made the difference for us. I can tell you that Brad was a key part of that because I can see that these two guys are working together and it makes a huge difference because they play off each other and are pushing each other. That is key. You have to have that chemistry. It is the same thing with Paul and Todd. Paul got a lot of notoriety last year and Todd was there listening and watching and today they are working hand in glove. It was the right move. We are investing in the future and we have two young drivers we would match with anybody today. We are looking long term. This isn’t about one race at Michigan, it is about the future.”

JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED — “It was a no brainer for me. All you have to do is walk through the shop once and meet Roger and guys that work there and the Shell Pennzoil folks. It is an amazing opportunity to have a fresh start and working with my idol, Roger Penske. He is an amazing person and he impresses me everyday how he does so much and such a great job at it. To be working for a guy like that was a very, very easy decision for me. I feel like all the questions were answered as soon as we started. I feel like before we got to Daytona we knew it was the right call. Right off the bat we had speed in our cars. I haven’t second guessed anything since I signed that contract.”

ROGER PENSKE CONTINUED – “Joey was in no-man’s land there really. Gibb’s wanted to keep him. I have to thank J.D. and Joe because they asked me to wait a couple weeks which we did. His dad played a big part in this too. Fathers who are race drivers, there are all sorts of stories, but he has been a great supporter of ours and stood by us when we were having some trouble and it has been a great team effort. I take my hat off to his dad and mom, they have a great son.”

JAMIE ALLISON CONTINUED — THE STORYLINES IN JUNE WERE ABOUT WHAT WAS WRONG WITH FORD. WHAT HAS CHANGED? WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW?  “As Joey just alluded to, if you look at the first five or six races of the season, the final restart of every race in the first five races a Ford was on the front row in the final restart. You can’t be on the front row of the final restart in the first five races without having speed in your car. Clearly the team had speed and the season is long. There are all sorts of circumstances that create a lack of performance. The Gen 6 car certainly we have had to do a little more diligent preparation and diligent work on understanding how to race in that type of a vehicle. Ultimately at the end of the day, we at Ford Motor Company, had fait in the elements that we support our teams with, the engines, design of the body and all other elements around race strategy. We belived those pieces were being used by our teams to compliment and add their value add to prepeare their cars to show up at the race track, qualify and race and make great calls. That is a long way of saying that although the results have not been there and there have been circumstances where we have not had the opportunity to show the capability of the program, we felt we had a lineup of great teams, drivers and the ability to perform. We feel if you look at the last two races, you see there some momentum returning to the Ford camp across all our teams. You see what is going on with RPM, circumstantially at Watkins Glen and how strong they were. Roush the last few weeks and Penske. We feel the Ford camp is strong and gaining momentum and how nice is it to be gaining the momentum at the right time of season. The last couple of seasons Ford drivers have led the regular season in points. We haven’t had the results we expect in the Chase. This time around maybe we won’t be leading the points coming into the Chase and hopefully we end up with different results.”

ROGER PENSKE CONTINUED – “I want to jump in here. One of the things I remember reading was that the Ford teams were not working together. It took probably half the season to get open communication with Roush on both sides. Today, Joey can look at the traces on the Roush cars and vice versa and qualifying and race setups. There is good cross-pollination and transparency which I think is also paying good benefits to us. Also, we had to understand the engine program and some of the things there. Overall it is strong and obviously Roush brings a lot to the table and we are trying to be 50-50 here. We had some tough breaks and obviously dinged our drivers with 25 and 30 points because of the axle situation back after Texas. Overall, I am glad to get the momentum now and I think we started to get to the Chase last year and got better. I feel like the teams are coming together and see if we can’t get into the Chase with both cars. It is still a real wild card with how close the points are.”