Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Ford Championship Weekend Advance – Homestead-Miami Speedway
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion, is in the Championship 4 for the second time in three seasons. He participated in a press conference this afternoon in Miami to talk about his chances of winning his first championship and the second for owner Roger Penske, who is celebrating his 50th year in motorsports.
PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – NERVOUS OR EXCITED? “It’s an awesome opportunity to be here. There are only four of us that get the opportunity to get to race for a championship and that’s an amazing opportunity we’re gonna get to enjoy and be excited about, and embrace the pressure and have some fun with this whole thing.”
CAN YOU HANDICAP WHO TOUGH THIS CHAMPIONSHIP FOUR IS? “I don’t think it’s ever easy. Everyone is here for a reason. These are the four best teams this year. It’s been proven that they’ve either been consistent or can win when they have to, if they had some troubles earlier in one of the rounds. Everyone was able to get through and there’s not many guys who are able to do it. It’s so close. There’s a lot of pressure that has been put on these race teams and these are the race teams that are able to handle it. A lot of people can go different ways when there is pressure put on them, but these teams here seem to be the ones that are best this year and one of them will prevail at the end.”
HOW IS IT TO BE IN A SPORT WHERE YOU GUYS SEEM TO ALL GET ALONG? IT’S NOT LIKE THE UFC WHERE THOSE GUYS WANT TO FIGHT EACH OTHER. “I think you see that in all sports. You watch a football game and after the game they’re all shaking each other’s hand after they just knocked the heck out of each other. That happens. You even watch a hockey game and afterwards they all shake hands, whether they want to or not. They seem forced in that sport, but I do think there is obviously a switch – maybe when they put their helmet on – things change. We’re all out there as competitors, but right now we’re outside the car, we all still get along. We’ve spent a lot of time together this week.”
THOUGHTS ON TONY STEWART. “I’ve been on both ends of Tony as well, like Kyle. Tony is the ultimate racer. He’s the racer’s racer. Obviously, with his dirt track and all the different things that he’s done for our sport, and he’s got a huge heart. I think that’s something a lot of people don’t know about Tony. As much as you see from the outside that he’s a hard-nosed racer and you see the drive and the determination from that standpoint, but outside of the car you see that he’s got a very giving heart, which is something that’s really cool. From seeing both sides of it, it’s been fun. I got to take over the 20 car when he moved on to start his own race team, and got to spend a lot of time with his race team after that and heard plenty of stories about him. A lot of them I can’t share, but it was a lot of fun getting to know him over that part and the beginning part of my career.”
HOW MUCH DIFFERENT IS EVERYTHING THIS WEEK WHEN YOU HAVE TO WIN? “For us it’s the same exact thing – for us and Kyle it’s the same thing we had to do last week. Last week was part one of our championship and now this is part two, so I feel like I kind of lived this once before as far as last week, and not only a couple years ago as well. I think that all helps, but for the most part it’s still another race. You’re still gonna have to go out there. We’re gonna have to beat each other. We’re gonna have to beat the rest of the cars as well. There are gonna be a lot of fast cars here trying to end on a very good note for the end of the season, so for us or for at least the 22 team we’re gonna stay constant to what we typically do, the way we work practices. The way we prepared for the race at the shop this week was very normal. Obviously, we all think about what’s on the line and we know what’s on the line and we make sure that we’ve talked about everything and thought about everything that can happen and be as prepared as possible, but at the same time you’ve got to look at it and it’s still a race. It’s just like every other race this year that we’re gonna try to win. Our goals don’t change.”
IS YOUR MENTALITY YOU HAVE TO WIN THIS WEEKEND? “Yes.”
DO YOU HAVE PICKS FOR THE XFINITY AND TRUCK CHAMPIONS? “I’m going with Johnny Sauter because he’s awesome. How do you not root for Johnny Sauter. God Bless America. That guys is aggressive. I love watching him, so I hope he does it, and my spotter spots for him as well. In the XFINITY race the 22 Team Penske car is running for the owner’s championship, or the secret championship that nobody knows about, so I’m gonna root for that car. I have a little vested interest in that one.”
FOUR GREAT TEAMS. WHAT DECIDES IT ON SUNDAY? “The track changes a lot for sure. You watched the 78 car last year and he didn’t have bunch of speed, but every opportunity they had to put two tires on or to change the strategy up he got himself up there. There were parts of the race that he could have won the championship with a car that wasn’t the fastest, so a lot of things can happen towards the end of this race. We’ve seen a green-white-checker before and having long runs versus short runs and where your car is fast is definitely gonna be a story because this race track – tires wear out a lot, so there are comers and goers throughout a run.”
HOW WOULD A TITLE ON SUNDAY CHANGE THE PERCEPTION OF YOUR RACING CAREER? “Obviously, I think as an athlete in general and a lot of times people judge your career off of championships that you have. You can have that conversation in a lot of different ways and say this guy made this many points or this guy did this in his career, but how many championships does he have? That’s what it always comes down to in those arguments, so to have that next to your name means a lot. It means a whole bunch. It means probably more to me to be able to do that for Roger Penske in his 50th anniversary this year in motorsports. That’s something that would be very special and that’s the ultimate goal. You start the season and what do you say? I want to win the championship. You don’t say I want to win a certain amount of races, you say I want to win the big prize at the end. To be able to do that means a lot.”
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM LOSING A CHAMPIONSHIP? “It kind of sucks. When I was up here a couple of years ago and I got a question about the people that say you have to lose one to win one and I thought that was the biggest line of b.s. I’ve ever heard in my life and I didn’t like that statement. I don’t believe that you have to lose one to win one, but I do believe you learn a lot by going through the experience once and going through this actual format once — through this whole weekend. At that point, like Jimmie said, I was the guy that sat here for the first time on the stage with these lights on me in a do-or-die moment. I’ve never had that before. That was the first time for me, and I made a lot of mistakes throughout that weekend – not just on the race track, but in preparation and how I got there. I didn’t know what I was doing, so I had to learn just like anybody in their first time. They have to figure it out. You can listen to people and all that, but there aren’t many people who have actually lived through this before that can give you the advice you really, really need. So after going through that once and then going through that a few times throughout this Chase, this Chase presents a lot of opportunities. I call them Miami opportunities – the same pressure you feel when you come down here to race for a championship. You have to do that multiple times throughout this last 10 weeks, so for me I feel a lot more prepared. I feel ready for this weekend and I was actually talking to a few of my team guys and I said, ‘Man, I feel so much different than I did a couple years ago.’ My whole team feels that way. We feel a lot more relaxed because we’re confident and we know what the challenge is ahead of us.”
WHEN IS THE POINT YOU DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “I guess that’s a secret for everybody.”
WHAT VARIABLE CONCERNS YOU THE MOST? “I think there are always things that can happen during the race. There are so many things that can happen. This isn’t one of the longest races of the year, it’s pretty short, but you can recover if something happens early in the race. Tony Stewart did it and was able to come back and win the race. It’s fresh in my mind because I watched the same thing Carl did. There’s a lot of things that can happen just like every single week. You control your own destiny. I’m not a believer in luck at all. I believe you create your own and I feel like our team is prepared for it. Preparation is key, like Kyle said. Our team is prepared for that and we’re prepared for anything. You’ve got to expect the unexpected. Anything can happen at any moment and you’ve got to be ready to roll with the punches.”
BREAKOUT SESSION
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – WHAT IS IT LIKE TO HAVE ROGER PENSKE AS YOUR BOSS? “He is an awesome boss. He is the type of person who leads by example. I think that is very admirable of him. You have somebody that will clean the shop floors with you and also make the big decisions at the same time. That is shown all the way through our company. It is not an accident that he has been successful in everything, not just motorsports, everything. Because he knows how to be a great leader and surrounds himself with great people. He has that driver and determination and work ethic that is second to none. It is a lot of fun to work with him because you can talk to him how I am talking with you. He is a normal guy. But at the same time he is able to do these incredible things. He doesn’t have to say words to motivate you. It is Roger Penske, he doesn’t have to say a word. You know what he stands for.”
IS THERE A PARTICULAR STORY YOU CAN SHARE ON A PERSONAL LEVEL? “There are a lot of them. When we are in meetings he is always the guy to say, ‘Let’s go get it done.’ A lot of times you think of companies that get really large, you call that big business and it has to go through so many different steps and levels to get to the decision maker. With Roger, he says to just do it. He wants to win, that is his attitude. He does that in meetings constantly. He does that and says that is how it is going to be. I love that about him. He is very professional in his appearance and how he handles those situations but not so professional that he is scared to make a decision. He is going to make something happen. He isn’t going to wait. He has too much going on to wait and think about things. He knows what the right decision is by experience and living through it before. He makes great decisions all the time. That is why he is where he is at.”
WHAT IS IT LIKE GOING AGAINST A SIX-TIME CHAMPION FOR THIS TITLE THIS YEAR? “Jimmie is one of those guys you want to hate but you can’t because he is too nice. He is a great competitor and wins a lot, so you don’t want to like him. He is a very good person. That is something that is admirable about him. He is Jimmie Johnson, he is a six-time champion. He has done a lot in this sport. I grew up watching him. Some people you would say it gets to their head or they get to a top level and change who they are. I didn’t know Jimmie when he was growing up but today as I have gotten to know him, and I have gotten to know him better over the last couple of days even, he is just a good person. It is hard to find that a lot of times when you are talking about professional athletes these days. It is hard to find genuine people.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE FEELING OF RUNNING AGAINST HIM WHEN HE HAS A CHANCE TO GO FOR THE SEVENTH TITLE? “I honestly don’t really care abou this run too much. I care about mine and it doesn’t really make me nervous about who I am going up again. I have to beat everybody, not just the four drivers sitting up there, everyone. That is a pressure that I love. I said before the race last week on my radio that these are the moments we live for. This is what we prepare for every single day. This is what we think about. This is an awesome opportunity to embrace that pressure. There are only four drivers that get that. It is a privilege to have that pressure. You guys all have pressure writing these stories with thousands of people, maybe even more, reading that. It is pressure to make sure you write it right with no typos and good grammar. That is pressure but you worked hard to get that pressure and worked hard to get to that point. It is the same with us. We worked really hard to get here. We enjoy that and embrace that moment because this is what we live for. I get excited just talking about it. I can’t wait to get on the race track because I know we are ready and have done what we have to do back at the shop mentally to be there. I feel very prepared and very ready to attack when we get on the race track tomorrow.”
THROUGH THE CHARTER AGREEMENT THE CHAMPION GETS PAID LESS. DOES IT MATTER? “Money is money but trophies are trophies. You want to win no matter what. You don’t even have to give me a trophy to say I want to win. I want to win anything. I want to win the ping pong match just as bad as the NASCAR championship. It is how I am. I am very competitive in that way. There are a lot of great things that come along with it. I don’t even know what it pays to win this thing. I will care, yes, but really my goal is to beat everyone. That is the biggest reward that you can feel from inside, that moment of victory, not the moment of the check. That is still really cool and you can do a lot of really great things with it, but that moment you cross the line like last week in Phoenix to get that checkered flag and realize you are still alive in this championship, still have something and you attacked in those moments. That is the coolest thing.”
