JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion –
DID YOU HAVE ANY INDICATION OF A PROBLEM? COULD IT HAVE BEEN A HEAT-RELATED PROBLEM WITH THE RIGHT-FRONT TIRE?
“I think so. It’s hard to say for sure, but I got loose off of four and knocked the right-rear quarter off it and then got real loose. When you get loose you have to slow down more and you use a lot of brake to slow down. Usually, the next thing to go is the right-front tire and that happened. Unfortunately, I put us in a bad spot here. It’s not where we want to be and we’ll figure out next week.”
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I was just looking at the tire in there. I got loose and hit the wall about 10 laps before that and the car got really loose when you tap the right-rear quarter over. You’re trying to slow down a lot and the brakes started going away and I don’t know what happened after that, if a rotor blew up or what made the tire go down, but the right-front went flat and I was pretty much along for the ride after that. I hit a ton, so I’m pretty impressed by the way the safety is in these race cars. That was one of the hardest hits I’ve had in a while. I had a long time to look at the wall before I hit it and not really slow down much before I got there and I’m alright, so it’s pretty cool to get through that. It just kind of stinks for our race team to be crashed out so early in the race, but we’ll just go back to Loudon and go back to work.”
YOUR CHEEK IS RED. DID YOU HIT THE SIDE OF YOUR FACE?
“Yeah, a little bit, but everything did its job. It doesn’t hurt. I think it’s just red.”
IS THE TRACK REAL SLIPPERY?
“Yeah, it’s real slick. The first lap I was out there sideways and then tried to make a little bit of progress on it. For me, it was either you’re really loose in and really tight off, or you’re good in and decent off – or at least it was for my car, so it is what it is.”
