Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
AAA 400 Advance – Dover International Speedway
Friday, September 26, 2014
Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion, is coming off a win in last week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway that clinched a spot in next week’s Contender Round. Logano, who also announced a multi-year contract extension with Team Penske yesterday, spoke about a variety of issues before today’s practice.
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – WHAT DID LAST WEEK’S WIN MEAN TO YOU AND TO KNOW YOU’RE IN THE CONTENDER ROUND? “It’s nice to be able to get that win in my home area. We had a really big week leading into that. We had a couple foundation events. We opened up an extension basically to the Connection, which is a homeless community up in Middletown, CT, so that was a great week leading up to Loudon and then topping it off with a win was kind of a dream weekend that I’ll never forget. I’m excited about getting back here to Dover. It’s probably one of my favorite race tracks and a neat place to get around, so I’m looking forward to hitting the track in a little bit.”
WHAT WENT THROUGH YOUR MIND WHEN YOU SIGNED THE EXTENSION WITH PENSKE? “It’s really nice because I’ve been through kind of the down parts of the sport and now we’ve obviously won a few races this year and it’s been a lot of fun. To be able to extend my relationship with Team Penske is a dream come true. The last couple years have been really good. I feel like I’ve found myself a home over there. I feel like this 22 team is awesome. It’s a great team to work with, working with Todd and basically everyone at Team Penske, working with Brad, I feel like all of that put together has been very successful, so it makes sense to try to prolong that as long as possible and to be able to get this extension done and be able to focus in on the Chase is good.”
DO YOU FEEL THAT YOU’RE A VETERAN IN THIS SEASON EVEN THOUGH YOU’RE STILL SO YOUNG? “I do, which is really cool. That’s a huge advantage that I have right now is that I’m 24 years old with six years of experience under my belt. That’s awesome. There’s no one else that can say that right now. The rookies coming in aren’t much younger than me and some are the same age as me, so to be able to have that already is something special. If you look at the way this sport is typically the peak of their career is six to 15 years into their career is usually when you have that experience. Experience pays off in NASCAR racing more than the age does, so to be able to hit your peak at a younger age possibly I can prolong my career with a lot more wins a little bit longer. All of that hard work is paying off right now.”
WHAT MAKES THE PENSKE ORGANIZATION SO GOOD RIGHT NOW? “There’s a lot. You asked about what makes Team Penske run well and it’s the people. All the teams have seven-post. All the teams have wind tunnel time. All the teams have sims. They all have this stuff. Everyone has the same things and the same tools, but it’s the people that run the tools and operate them is where the difference is. And I think having that team chemistry between both race teams – the 2 and the 22 – I think having it within the 22 team, all of us the way we work together and the attitude we have when we get to the race track – I think we’re all on the same page. I think that’s important. When you have someone that’s way over here and the other team is over here, or guys are pulling apart from each other, that’s a recipe for disaster if you ask me. So making sure we all work well and the people that we put in the right places, having the right people there, is the biggest deal.”
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED — WHAT DOES ROGER MEAN TO YOU? “I’ve gotten to know Roger for a couple years now and see how he operates and basically everything you hear from the outside is true. The professionalism he has throughout all of racing and all of his businesses – the hard work and ethic that he has to do that is amazing. It’s fun to just go around and listen to the things he has going on. A lot of times we start talking about some of the other business ventures he’s in and I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s really cool.’ That’s so outside of my box. My box is right here – racing. He’s got so many other things going on and to be able to multi-task and do all those different things like that and do a good job at it, I know I wouldn’t be able to do it so I think it’s pretty amazing.”
DID YOU EVER FEEL YOU EARNED THE RESPECT OF KYLE AND DENNY AT GIBBS LIKE YOU HAVE NOW AT PENSKE WITH BRAD? DOES BEING SO CLOSE WITH BRAD ENRICH YOUR POTENTIAL AT PENSKE? “Like I was saying about teammates. There are only two of us, so if we don’t get along that’s all of Team Penske not getting along, so we’ve got to make sure we have a good relationship and are able to work great together. That’s a very important thing that we need to do. Did I have that at Gibbs? I did at times, yes. I got along with them, but I think you talk about chemistry and being able to just communicate and being at the same level as the guys you’re racing with on your team, I think that’s important and that’s something maybe I didn’t have as much over there, but they were both great teammates just in different ways.”
WHAT MAKES YOU THE GUY THAT CAN WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP? NOT YOUR TEAM, BUT WHAT DO YOU BRING AND WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THIS IS YOUR TIME? “A lot, and you’re saying it’s just me but I’m not doing this on own. This team – the 22 team – has that same attitude. We all work together. I’m not gonna answer the question of if it was just me because we all have to be able to support each other one way or another. I do feel like I’m confident enough to do this. I feel like we’re ready. I feel like as a team we’ve done what we need to do to get to this point to be able to have a shot at it right now. We’ve got to keep plugging away to get all the way to Homestead. We’ve got a long ways to go. We’ve got to keep our heads down and keep booking along with it, but, for me personally, I feel like my head is in the right spot. I feel like we’ve been attacking these weekends in the right way. I feel like Todd and myself have been working together better than ever and we need to keep doing that, and I think the whole 22 team has been doing it. I know I can’t do it on my own, and I know I have the guys behind me that have the same attitude as me and want it just as bad as me, and that’s why I feel we have a good shot at it.”
WHAT’S ON YOUR SHOULDERS TO HELP SUPPORT YOUR TEAMMATE? “Doing what we’ve been doing. I don’t think there’s anything we need to change. We need to do what we do. What we’ve done throughout this year to get here has been good. We have a lot of top-five finishes, we’ve got some wins now, so that’s been working. Don’t reinvent the wheel now because you’re in the Chase because you know it works. Maybe just more of the same thing. More of working with your team as much as you can, trying to find that little bit more when you’re at the race track, whether it’s spending more time with your team trying to figure out the race car and thinking things a little bit deeper and trying to understand things a little bit more. Basically it’s working harder. You think you’re working as hard as you can and then the Chase starts and you’re like, ‘Alright, there’s got to be another level in me somewhere,’ and I think it’s just digging down and finding that. It’s not just in the race, that’s as soon as I get here to the race track and throughout the whole week to get to the next race track. That’s how it has to be, I think, to win this championship. I think the guy who works the hardest is gonna have a really good shot at it.”
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED — COMPARE LAST YEAR TO THIS YEAR. WHAT’S DIFFERENT THAT HAS ALLOWED YOU TO WIN MORE? “A year of experience together. I look at what we did last year and we went through a lot of adversity last year, from really the beginning of the season all the way to the halfway point of the season. We had a lot of drama. We had a lot of new guys on the team. We had a new car chief, a new engineer, a new shock guy – a new driver obviously – so all of us gelling together took some time to figure out and it took some time for Todd and myself to understand each other and figure out what we needed at each race track. We had to go through that learning curve and about the halfway point in the year when we started going to these race tracks a second time we had a notebook and we were able to start running better. We weren’t at the caliber we are right now, but we were running better and we went into this season basically the same way. We have a couple races under our belt now and we’re going to these races for the third or fourth time and we’re just going off our notebook. I think our race cars have gotten faster, too. I think Team Penske has done a great job on bringing some really fast race cars to the race track and I think the more we all understand each other, the more I’m able to understand what Brad wants in his car and why I can’t run certain things that he’s running – it just doesn’t work for me – and understanding the difference between the two cars at each race track. All that stuff kind of put together, I think, is what made us run better this year compared to last.”
HAVE YOU TAKEN TIME TO LOOK BACK AND REFLECT HOW DIFFERENT YOUR LIFE AND CAREER ARE NOW COMPARED TO THREE OR FOUR YEARS AGO? “To answer your question, no, I haven’t had a minute to sit down and think about it because I live in the moment. I just keep going with it. Looking back at it some, it is cool. A few years back, only a couple of years ago I really didn’t have a job. It was like, ‘Oh boy, what am I gonna do? Am I gonna race the rest of my life? What’s Plan B?’ And all of a sudden I’m sitting in a good position. I’ve got a multi-year deal that I’m gonna be racing for awhile. I’m winning races. We’ve got a lot of top fives. If you would have told me all of this was gonna happen a couple years ago I would have said, ‘Yeah, that’s nice. I don’t know if that will happen, but it sounds really good.’ But that hard work is paying off now. You talk about the experience I got from all that and I wouldn’t trade any of that for the world. I love that I went through each and every experience that I’ve gone through because that’s what shaped me into who I am and the driver and person that I am now. So I’m proud that I went through all of it. It was hard, but did I think I’d be sitting here a couple of years ago saying what I’m saying right now? Probably not, but I’m gonna enjoy the ride while I can, that’s for sure.”
HOW MUCH DO YOU FEEL YOUR PERFORMANCE THIS YEAR LED TO THIS EXTENSION? AND HOW MUCH OF A RELIEF IS IT TO KNOW YOU’RE SET FOR THE NEXT FEW YEARS? “I’m sure Roger and Walt after last year they wanted to make sure that we ran well again this year because last year was kind of the first year that I had what some would call a breakout season, where we were able to win a race and get in the Chase and finish eighth in the points. It’s like, ‘OK, that’s great. Let’s see if we can do that again and make sure it’s not like a one-year wonder.’ I’m assuming this. I don’t know this, but when they came to me earlier this year about it I think it was as we were running well on the race track and things were going good. I think they wanted to secure a lot our partnerships and just make sure we have what we have for a long time and keep that team together and making sure we’re doing what we’re doing. I think at that point that was kind of the moment and I was all about it. It didn’t take much to convince me.”
