Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 Advance – Atlanta Motor Speedway
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion, is fresh off his win in Sunday’s Daytona 500 and an extensive media tour that took him to New York City and his hometown in Connecticut. Logano spoke about his week prior to today’s test session and how the mindset quickly changes as he and other teams encounter a new set of rules this weekend in Atlanta.
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – HOW DO YOU FEEL COMING TO ATLANTA AND THIS TEST TODAY AFTER THE WEEK YOU’VE HAD? “To be honest with you it’s like, ‘We’re at Atlanta now.’ It’s still great. It’s cool. We’ve enjoyed this whole time, but now it’s back to work. There are a lot of unknowns coming here to Atlanta. We don’t know what we’re gonna have with the new package because we haven’t had a chance to use it yet, so you’re kind of on edge just to see what it’s going to be like and get back in the groove of a normal weekend. This is gonna be a big test to see where we’re at and to see what we need to work on to get better. All of the stuff that came along with the 500 was fun, but that’s kind of over now and it’s back to work.”
WHAT’S IT LIKE TO GET CONGRATULATED BY PEOPLE IN THE GARAGE LIKE YOU HAVE BEEN TODAY? “It’s neat because I lived here for six years. I ran Legends cars out here forever, so I know a lot of people here at Atlanta. I still know all of the security guards because they’re the ones that let me in when I was 10 years old and walk around the garage. They were my hookups back then and they’re still here, so it’s cool to see them after all that.”
WHAT WAS THE MOST FUN YOU HAD THIS PAST WEEK? “It’s definitely a fun kind of busy. The most fun is I got to my hometown in Connecticut. Middletown is my hometown, but Portland is right across the river and that’s where I would always hang out and play when my father worked. We went to a local restaurant the other day and got to see everyone, and that was kind of cool. That was probably the most fun thing we’ve done.”
HOW DID YOU LIKE ALL OF THE TELEVISION SHOWS YOU DID. WAS IT FUN? WERE YOU NERVOUS? “It was fun. I didn’t really get too nervous. I just tried to be relaxed because the more tensed up you are the worse you do.”
IT MUST BE NICE TO KNOW THAT YOU COME HERE AND HAVE A SPOT IN THE CHASE WAITING FOR YOU ALREADY. “Even though we’ve got something new this weekend, we’ve got something already. It’s nice because, like I said, there are so many unknowns. We don’t really know what’s gonna happen, if our car is gonna be fast or not. We assume we’re gonna be OK, but you never know. But knowing that we’re in the Chase kind of makes us feel a little bit better because it gives us some time to really make sure we get this thing figured out. Hopefully, we’ll be contending for a lot more wins. We can be aggressive now and race like we did last year up until the Chase starts, so that’s a nice feeling.”
