Ford Performance NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Daytona 500 Champions Breakfast – Daytona International Speedway
Monday, February 23, 2015
2015 Daytona 500 champion Joey Logano, crew chief Todd Gordon and car owner Roger Penske took part in the annual Champions Breakfast held at Daytona International Speedway in the Daytona USA museum. Logano’s winning 22 car was placed into the museum until next years 500 while all three men spoke to media members.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – HOW WAS OVERNIGHT AND HOW WELL DID YOU SLEEP? HAS IT SUNK IN YET THAT YOU ARE A DAYTONA 500 CHAMPION? “I didn’t sleep much, that is for sure. We had a good time. The guys went to the Oyster Pub down there and we had some fun there. We got back around 12:30 this morning. I didn’t go to sleep really much at all though. I shut off the TV but my mind just kept thinking about the whole race and how it all played out and I just kept reliving the moment over and over again. I am really tired right now because I didn’t sleep much. It is amazing. It is the Daytona 500. This is something that you don’t take for granted. It is something that is very special. I know that and I am excited about the adventure that lies ahead of me and what is going to happen coming up here in the next few days.”
WHEN YOU WALKED OUT OF THE DRIVERS MEETING YESTERDAY, HOW CONFIDENT WERE YOU THAT YOU WOULD BE SITTING IN VICTORY LANE AT THE END OF THE RACE? “Well, I texted Todd that we were going to win tomorrow the night before the race. It sounded good at the time.”
TODD GORDON, CREW CHIEF – “I hope that is what you think the night before the race.” (laughter)
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED – “Daytona is one of those race tracks that anything can happen. A lot of times, like think of Atlanta next week, we will have a really good idea of who has a fast race car and who will be racing for the win. At Daytona, there are a select handful of cars that you figure you will be racing for the win but there is also everyone else that has a great shot to win also. It is a little more unsettling and not really knowing where you will end up but as we worked on it throughout the weekend our car kept getting faster. Tab (spotter Tab Boyd) and I started working better together and we saw the results get better each and every race as we went through the weekend. I thought that built a lot of confidence up in me. Personally, a couple of months ago leading into this race I didn’t feel very confident that we could come down here and win the Daytona 500 but we kept working at it and getting better and before the race I felt confident that we could finally win this race. I thought we were where we needed to be and just needed to do what we knew how to do and here we are.”
TODD GORDON CONTINUED – “From my perspective, I don’t know that I walked out of the drivers meeting thinking we would win the Daytona 500. I think you have to put yourself in position and once you’ve proved you can put yourself in position consistently you will win. To Joey’s point, that is something that over the off-season we put a lot of focus into, trying to understand how we can speedway race better. I felt we had speed at times but didn’t execute last year. That was an off-season work in progress. I don’t know that I was ready to say that all of our work has gotten us to this point. Joey and Tab spent a lot of time looking through and watching race footage and doing things. Me as well. Learning what we could do and how we could handle the races better. Having not been able to put ourselves all the way in that position, I felt like we could be competitive. I didn’t know that we could win that day but as the race went on I definitely felt and saw what we worked on come forward into the race and by the time we got to 50 to go I felt we were in position.”
ROGER PENSKE, OWNER – “I walked out of the drivers meeting many times here as you well know and I think this year I knew that we had the right package and I had seen the Duels and the confidence that we had in both drivers to be honest with you and certainly Todd’s confidence with the car. The guys in red over here have really done a hell of a job all off-season getting ready for the race. To me it was going to be about being in position. The one thing Joey said to me was he said, ‘I am going to race all day.’ To me, in my mind, that is when I knew we had a chance. He was not going to sit in the back. He was going to race all day and I think that is what made the difference.”
TODD GORDON CONTINUED – CAN YOU COMPARE YOUR EMOTIONS FROM HOMESTEAD WITH THE EMOTIONS OF LAST NIGHT? “I think the perception of the emotions that I should have had and what I did have from Homestead are different. I felt like we ran very competitively and put ourselves in position. I think everybody on this Shell Pennzoil team did an awesome job of taking the positives out of Homestead and knowing we had a shot. We were competitive all day and we continued to be successful. We had one hiccup. It is no different than any sport. There are always opportunities and we are grateful for what we had. To come here and we had a very well executed race, the pit crew gained spots on pit road about every time we came, even relative to people that took two with us and four with us. I think everybody came out of Homestead with a positive vibe of being competitive and that we could do this. I was really thankful to see the guys, I guess the emotional piece here was that everybody believed that and everybody has now done it. We will carry that forward in 15.”
ROGER PENSKE CONTINUED — DALE JUNIOR TWEETED THAT HE HOPED TO SEE LOTS OF PICTURES OF JOEY SMILING AND SQUINTING THIS WEEK. WHAT PERCENT OF THE TIME DO YOU SEE HIM SMILING AND SQUINTING? “He is always smiling when he is with me.” (laughter)
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED – “Brittany always says she hopes I don’t smile when the race cars start because I won’t be able to see where I am going.”
WITH THE VICTORY AND THE DYNAMICS OF THE CHASE, YOU ARE IN THE CHASE NOW AND HAVE A LITTLE HOUSE MONEY TO PLAY WITH MOVING FORWARD – “It is nice. Todd and I were talking about it on the way home last night from dinner. It is not going to change the way I race. I feel like as a driver I go out there to win. That is my job. That is not going to change because we are in the Chase now. We are going to go to Atlanta and I really want to win that race. That is a place for me that I grew up racing down there with late models and all that. It is a special place for me to try to win a race. I think as a team we want to go out there and keep the momentum going. As Todd said, we can race aggressively with pit strategy and with what I am going to do on the race track, not necessarily race like you have nothing to lose but you have a lot to gain with not as much to lose which is pretty cool. We will enjoy that, have some fun with it and try to stack up a few wins.”
TODD GORDON CONTINUED – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE EXECUTION YESTERDAY, WHAT WORKED THAT DIDN’T WORK IN THE PAST? “I would say it is just understand that there are several ways you can race these races. To Roger’s point of Joey saying he was going to race hard all day. I think being there and being around everybody gives you exposure to everybody to know your car has speed, people work with you. The more you are up there, the more you get that confidence from cars around you that the 22 has been in the top-five all day when there is a decision of the line breaking three-wide, people have more confidence to go with you. I think also how I call the race. There were times yesterday that I had to make some different calls than what the car or Joey was asking for. It was what the race was asking for though. Identifying those things were pretty important. How we communicate was a huge piece. Joey doesn’t have eyes out of the back of his head but he does with Tab. Us breaking down how we all see the information together and how we all kind of transfer that information to each other I think was something we worked on for execution.”
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED – “Personally, limiting the mistakes in the pack was something that I feel like we needed to work on the most coming into this race. There was a lot of times before where every time I got a run I would just make a move. There was a lack of patience and understanding the draft but the more we watched this and understood it, making smart moves and making sure you don’t put yourself in the position to basically lose everything you’ve got by working and staying up there all day. The worst thing that can happen is if we come down pit road and put two tires on the car to stay up front and then you make a mistake and now you are 20th with two tires. It isn’t a good deal. You have to work hard to stay up there with the track position. It is intense for all 500 miles. It was fun but it was mentally draining, that is for sure. You are constantly looking for someone to snag you and push you out of the pack. That is what it is out there. We are pushing each other really close and everyone is trying to find the hole. If you leave a gap they take it. That is what makes it entertaining for everyone, especially for me. That was key, trying to limit the mistakes I have made in the past and make sure that I tried to understand each move before we made it.”
YOU HAVE BEEN SMILING AND WINNING A LOT SINCE YOU CAME TO PENSKE. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH ROGER LIKE AND WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM HIM? “I remember the first time I met Roger. It was in Homestead and we were walking and waiting for Michelle Obama to drive in to the race track before the last race and we started talking a little bit then and I thought it was really cool that he even knew who I was. I really didn’t know I was going to be driving for him a short time afterwards. It has been an amazing opportunity for me and everyone kind of knows how my career went up to that point. Definitely it was the restart I needed in my career to get teamed up with what I feel like is the best race team on pit road, in the garage, they are unbelievable. They are so well matched up with each other and help each other out when someone needs it. That is what the team is. All the way through from the top to the bottom. It starts with Roger. It starts with the leader of the pack and trickles down through the whole organization. Not just in his race teams but everything else he does. To be involved in that and a part of Team Penske, there is a sense of pride you take in that. That is something I am proud to say, that I am a Team Penske driver. Even cooler to say we won the big trophy together.”
ROGER PENSKE CONTINUED – YOU HAVE HAD TWO CAR TEAMS BEFORE, WHAT IS IT THAT HAS MADE THIS GROUP SO COMPETITIVE? “I think it really starts when we brought the Indy Car team down to Charlotte and Tim Cindric and Mike Nelson and Travis Geisler said we were going to build the same car for everyone. This sport was about crew chiefs having their own car over in the corner and we decided to build the cars exactly the same. We have a process. The only time you know what your car is is when they paint it. They are put together by a team of guys that put all the cars together. It is a seven iron, a seven iron and another seven iron. The way you hold it might be different and the way Todd or Paul Wolfe will set that car up will make a difference. When we get to the race track, we see a car that is consistent. We have really had very little turnover and I think that has made a big difference. Within the organization, the type of people that wanted to come to work with us – we brought a lot of people up from the bottom that thumbed their way across the country to go to work for our team. They are some of the people that are at the top today. I would say it starts with Tim and Mike and Travis who really put this together. If you go to our shop, all the key guys, their offices are right beside each other so they have to say hello. We have tried to be one team and that is Team Penske. That has made the difference. The continuity of the people is probably the best. To have Brad Keselowski who has been a great leader and he and Joey have become good friends. They respect each other on the race track. They are different in many ways but in the other hand they are the same because they want to win and I think they like the cars pretty much the same. That gives us an advantage when we go to the track.”
TODD GORDON CONTINUED – JOEY TALKED ABOUT BEING ABLE TO TAKE SOME CHANCES NOW THAT YOU ARE IN THE CHASE. I ASSUME THAT IS MORE AT THE TRACK THAN IT IS DURING THE WEEK? “Definitely. Our model last year was to just do what we do. That is something this team lives by. We will continue down that path of how we prepare for every race weekend. The change comes with how aggressive you can be on track position calls, fuel mileage calls, how aggressive you can be on any call. How you race. Last year once we got our multiple wins, there were several conversations on the box when you get to the 2/3 mark of the race of what is the call that wins us the race. Even if it costs us a top-five spot and the risk is you could run 15th. That conversation happens. When you have a win, those conversations are a lot easier to have. To Joey’s point, this game is all risk and reward. The risk has gone down now.”
YOU’VE GONE FROM SLICED BREAD TO BREAD WINNER. HOW TALK ABOUT THE EVOLUTION AND EVERYTHING YOU HAVE GONE TO LEADING UP TO BEING NOW A DAYTONA 500 WINNER. “It means a lot. There are a lot of great race car drivers that have never won the Daytona 500. You see the list on the big trophy down there of all the drivers that have won this thing and to have your name associated with that means so much. I said earlier, you walk into this place and they have the concrete in here with the driver’s hands and feet and you look at some of the names that won this thing before and to think that your name is going to be down there in concrete is something special. That is there forever. That is what makes this race so special to win. It is the Daytona 500. We talk about it all the time. It is hard for me to put it into words what it feels like. It is just a surreal feeling. You work your whole career to get to the point that you even have a chance to win the Daytona 500. I talked yesterday about how big it was just to start the Daytona 500 so winning it is just insane the emotions you go through and what you feel. At the same time, you are like, okay and you start thinking about Atlanta and you want to keep the momentum going. At the same time you want to make sure you let this settle in and make sure you enjoy this moment. They are not easy to come by, obviously. We will make sure that we enjoy it but keep working hard.”
