Ford Performance NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Toyota Owners 400/ToyotaCare 250
NSCS FRIDAY MEDIA AVAILABILITY
Friday, April 24, 2015
Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion, kicked off a sweep of Richmond a year ago for Team Penske with his victory at the spring race. Logano discussed being the defending race winner, his team’s prospects for the weekend and more with media members Friday afternoon.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – HOW WAS YOUR CAR OUT THERE IN PRACTICE? “It isn’t bad. I don’t feel like it is as good as where we were last year in the spring here but I feel like we have got some decent speed in our car and the track was picking up a lot of speed toward the end of practice when the cool tires were out there and everyone was making mock runs and picking up a lot of the rubber we were laying down. That should give us a good read of what it will be like in qualifying later on. The Shell Pennzoil Ford has speed in it. I think we have a god shot at the pole. We will wait and see what happens. We have three rounds here which is challenging. You are going to run more than one lap I would guess. Most likely you will have to run more than one lap in each session and that will be interesting to see how many laps people put on tires and see what you have for the last run.”
IS IT MORE ABOUT WHAT THE DRIVER DOES HERE OR THE CAR SETUP? “Both for sure. I think how hard the driver drivers and how aggressive they are on restarts that first two laps of a run definitely comes into play late in a run. Also your setup has a big effect on that also and now with the driver adjustable track bar it changes the game a little bit too on where you want your balance to be and how that will affect your long run speed. You have to have that in mind when making adjustments. It is probably the majority the driver on how hard he runs to what the affect will be later on but it takes both. It is probably 60-40 diver to car.”
IS THE TIRES FALLING OFF AS IT ALWAYS HAS? “I think it is falling off a little more but it is hard to say. It is always hard to practice here because every time you go out there you lose a tenth and you don’t know if the changes are any better because you are going slower no matter what. It is hard to figure out what is a good change because you can’t put tires on each time you go out there. The tires are falling off a fair amount which is pretty normal for here. I don’t feel like it is any different more or less than what we typically have. Usually by the end of a run we can’t put the throttle down on the front straightaway. I think it will be the same way.”
YOU DEALT WITH RAIN LAST WEEKEND IN BRISTOL AND THEY ARE CALLING FOR RAIN HERE TOMORROW NIGHT. HOW DOES THAT AFFECT YOUR STRATEGY AND MOOD WHEN DEALING WITH A SIGNIFICANT DELAY LIKE THAT? “I hope it goes better than last week. It is tough a lot of times because you have your whole routine in the morning you go through with appearances and drivers meeting and do all your stuff and then you sit and wait. At that point you start to relax again. It just changes a little bit. It is like any other athlete. You get in your mode and do the same thing every week before the race or before a game and when it rains it kind of throws you off a little bit. Usually by the time you get back in the car, they give you enough warning the race is about to start and you get your head back straight again and off you go. Usually it isn’t that big of an affect for what we do.”
DO YOU GUYS GET ANY INPUT ON WHEN IT IS GOOD TO GO WHEN THERE IS RAIN AND IT IS SLICK? DO YOU HAVE ANY PERSONAL PREFERENCE? “My personal preference is that it is dry. That is what we are shooting for. I think last week everything went fine. I think the track was dry and we didn’t have any issues. Obviously the rain was coming when we crashed but it was still okay. NASCAR does ask the drivers a lot of times while we are rolling around there to give a thumbs up or thumbs down or tell our spotters what we think about the track but they typically do a great job making sure the track is dry. I think they learned their lesson quite a few years ago in a race to make sure the track is dry when they go now.”
WHAT WAS THE COMPETITION MEETING LIKE AT TEAM PENSKE AFTER YOUR ACCIDENT WITH BRAD LAST WEEKEND? “We didn’t have one because there was nothing to talk about. I had a meeting with my team and we went over what went through the weekend but we didn’t talk much as a team because there wasn’t as much to go over after such a short run. Everything is fine. Brad and I talked about it. It is not like – he obviously didn’t mean to do it. It hurt both our days, not just mine. It was a tough day but we were able to take something out of the weekend. I think the damage repair the team did was really good and we showed we had a really fast car afterwards. That makes it more frustrating when you can go run with these guys but you don’t wanna be that guy racing with them when you are 50 laps down. You don’t want to make enemies out there. The practice the guys got fixing the car, we didn’t have to do that because we have the win already but we get practice for if that comes up and we have to do that. That was good practice to repair cars and get back out there as quick as we can.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT OR DESCRIBE THE MOST DIFFICULT TIME YOU EVER HAD IN A CAR IN YOUR RACING CAREER? “I usually have a pretty good time inside of the car. I am thinking really back to early in my Sprint Cup career when we weren’t doing very good and you run some of these race tracks and these Cup races are so long and you are running out there three or four laps down and you are just frustrated because you don’t have any speed. Those are the worst ones. Last week was tough too because you are in a rain delay ready to go back out 50 laps down. That is our sport. You have to be mentally tough inside the car all day no matter what. My team works hard all week long to give us a fast race car and it is the least I can do no matter what the situation is, to drive the car as hard as I can no matter what the situation brings to me.”
HOW ABOUT A TIME YOU WERE SICK? “Atlanta a few years ago I had food poisoning most of the weekend and I didn’t practice my car or qualify it or anything and I started in the back. You guys know how long Atlanta is. It was one of those summer nights and I remember in the middle of that run not having much energy left and you just don’t eat much after you feel sick like that. About halfway through the run I came on the radio and asked someone to talk to me because I needed some motivation, needed some help.”
WHAT PART OF THE TRACK DO YOU FEEL REALLY COMFORTABLE AND WHAT IS MOST CHALLENGING FOR YOU WHEN IT COMES TO QUALIFYING? “When it comes to qualifying I talked with Todd before we came in here and usually we kind of prioritize certain parts of the corner or where it makes the speed and really at Richmond, it is one of those places that you have to do that everywhere. It isn’t like if we have a good exit we can afford to give up a little bit here, you pretty much have to be good everywhere here, definitely center and exit, those are the two that really stand out but you still have to have a decent entry to be able to make good speed and not be turning right into corners. That is never a comfortable feeling and you usually miss your line when that happens and you are shocking the front tires by the time you turn the wheel. It is a compromise type of track. You can’t just be great in one spot and give up something else. You find a way to be all good. Exit is probably the least important in qualifying but in the race it is probably the most important. It depends on what you are trying to do on the race track.”
WHEN YOU HAVE WON SOMEWHERE, HOW DOES IT CHANGE HOW YOU ROLL INTO THE TRACK HERE AGAIN? “It helps with confidence for sure. I looked at Richmond in the past as one of my toughest race tracks yet we got a win here last spring and had a decent run in the fall. We weren’t great, I think we were top five most of the day and finished sixth but we weren’t a threat to win the race. In the spring we definitely were. The tire has changed since then so I am still trying to figure out this tire and how to get back to where we were in the spring with the changes made to the race car and the tire and I feel like we are close and there is another step we have to find here. I feel like in practice we were a top five car but just barely. I don’t feel like we are quite a winning car yet. We will go over it a little bit tonight. It is one of the reasons I am running the XFINITY race, to get more laps and get a little better at this race track. There are some things I want to try personally as a driver to see if it pays off on long runs or short runs and things like that.”
