Ford Performance NASCAR Notes and Quotes
Camping World 500 – Phoenix Raceway
NMECS PRACTICE SESSIONS
Friday, March 17, 2017
Joey Logano met with media members Friday ahead of NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series qualifying, and as expected, fielded more questions about last weekend’s altercation with Kyle Busch at Las Vegas.
JOEY LOGANO (No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion) – LAST TIME YOU WERE HERE YOU CAME AWAY A WINNER. TALK ABOUT THAT EXPERIENCE. “Yeah, of course. Winning here, the amount of pressure that was on that weekend and how important it was to try to race for the championship the next weekend at Homestead meant so much to be able to do that. As close as it was, I was rewatching the race on the flight out here yesterday. My hands were sweating and I knew the outcome of what was going to happen and I was still on the edge of my seat. It was definitely a bit win for me, maybe the biggest of my career. That is a big deal when you compare it to the Daytona 500 and how big a deal it is to win that day and move on. Quite the feeling for sure.”
WHAT HAVE YOUR THOUGHTS BEEN LEADING INTO THE MEETING WITH NASCAR TODAY? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS AFTER THE MEETING, AND HOW WILL YOU RACE KYLE BUSCH GOING FORWARD? “Well, as far as leading into it, my plan was to just go in there and be honest. That is the best way I know how to handle situations, to be myself and be honest about the situation. I told him that we obviously made contact on the back straightaway. I had a not very good entry and had to slow down the car a lot to stay on the bottom and tried to make up some of that speed at the bottom of the race track and then I got loose. Once you get loose once, then I was on his door. You get loose again and at that point that was it. That is my mistake. I tried to stay on the bottom but my car didn’t stay there. There could be six or seven different reasons why that happened but the fact of the matter is I tried to stay on the bottom, I made a mistake and got up into him. I hate that it happened. I would take it back in a heartbeat. He asked for data when we talked on the phone and I was able to bring that with me and present that and try to explain what was going on inside my race car. We try to move on from there.”
HOW WILL YOU RACE HIM? “I think we will race the same as we always have. If you think about it. We have been racing each other for nine years and you think about the amount of Xfinity races and Cup races that is, because we both run a lot of races together. Not only running them but we have raced each other for first and second alot and we have never had an issue. I look at Kyle as one of the drivers I had the best relationship with. I am sure we will get back to that point. Obviously it will take a little time, that is just part of it. We have never had an issue. It wasn’t anything intentional. We will be able to push through this.”
WHAT WAS NASAR’S ROLE? “NASCAR just wanted to make sure they were the median between the two of us to make sure we talked in person. That was good. It was a great play by NASCAR. I took it on my own will to call Kyle and talk to him before hand but when you talk in person, you guys all know how that is different. You can do a phone interview or a face to face interview, a lot of times your story is different when you are able to see facial reactions. To be able to talk to him face to face, I believe it helped.”
DID YOU FEEL YOU WERE GETTING THROUGH TO KYLE AT ALL? “Time will tell. I guess your actions on the race track are what speaks the loudest a lot of times I guess. I believe so. Like I said, I tried to be as open and honest and be an open book. There are no secrets. Hopefully that helped.”
HOW BIG A MISTAKE DID YOU MAKE? “It is a mistake. We all make them every day. We learn from them and we move on. Mistakes sometimes aren’t a bad thing, this one was not so good. Hopefully we can move on from that. But we all do. I have made mistakes on the race track., probably even more mistakes off the race track. It is part of life and part of growing. Was it a big mistake, not to start, but then it had a big reaction to a small little wiggle. It grew to something bigger. It is hard racing on the last lap. We were racing to the checkered flag and I have no reason to do anything on purpose for fourth place. That makes no sense. We were racing hard for position and the car got loose.”
WHAT DO YOU LEARN FROM YOUR ISSUES WITH MATT KENSETH? WHAT CAN YOU APPLY TO THIS SITUATION? “That is a good question. I try to learn from everything. Every event is always a learning opportunity. I feel like the way I handled that situation, you can ask Matt the same question, I didn’t handle it the greatest. I was able to learn a lot from that. Basically, communication is the key. Whether it is what the person wants to hear or not, at least put your thoughts out there.”
YOU TESTED HERE, ARE YOU ABLE TO USE THAT OR ARE THE CONDITIONS TOO DIFFERENT? “You get closer. We were out here for a couple days testing and it was nice, really nice to have that and be able to work on your cars. You don’t get many tests during the year so you have to take advantage of that. Today I felt we were able to unload with a pretty quick car in race trim and that is because we were able to test a lot and able to try some things. A lot of times you can’t take what you learn at a test as gospel because when you come back the track changes a lot. Obviously it is really hot here and there will be a lot more rubber on the race track. You can’t commit fully to what you learned but it gives you direction and items you can have data on.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE IT IS CLEAR TO DRIVERS WHAT YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH AS FAR AS POST RACE INCIDENTS? “I believe it is pretty clear. What we saw last year, or two years ago, I think we saw where the line was drawn. So we know that. That seems like we learned something. It seems pretty clear.”
WHAT ABOUT OFF THE TRACK STUFF? “I don’t know. I am not looking for fights.”
WERE YOU EXPECTING KYLE TO COME TALK TO YOU? WERE YOU CAUGHT OF GUARD THAT HE CAME AND ATTEMPTED TO JUST PUNCH YOU? “Yeah, I was surprised by that honestly. I was expecting him to be frustrated by the situation because he got the bad end of the deal. I expected some animosity I guess and figured he would come over and express his side. I was going to try to take that opportunity to explain that same story I just told you guys. The situation was too heated to get to that point. I tried to wait a day or two and reach out to him instead. I guess it was a little bit of a surprise but also understandable.”
IT LOOKED LIKE KYLE HAD MADE CONTACT WITH YOU ENTERING TURN THREE. DO YOU THINK HE THOUGHT WHEN YOU GOT INTO HIM IT WAS RETALIATION? “That is a good question for him. I don’t know. I drive the 22 and he drives the 18. I don’t know what is going on in his head and he doesn’t know what is going on in mine.”
IF THERE COMES A DAY WHERE YOU AREN’T GIVING IT YOUR ALL, IS THAT THEY DAY YOU GET OUT OF THE RACE CAR? “Of course, yeah. I am aggressive race car driver. I race to win. I feel like that is what my job is. I feel like that is what Roger Penske hired me to do, to go out there and win races. If not, get every position you possibly can and get the best finish that day. That is what my job is. So I just try to be the best at my job.”
IF YOU HAD A DO-OVER ON THAT LAST LAP, WHAT COULD YOU OR WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY? “Well, I wouldn’t get loose and maybe check up a little sooner. There are so many things that could have affected that. There was some damage to my car, excessive rear heat put to the tires on the back straightaway, all those things that kind of start stacking up to a car breaking free. It was a surprise to me. If it is a mistake is is a surprise you didn’t see it coming. If I had seen it coming I would have driven the car differently. Looking back at it, I would have tried not to hit him. That was the goal though. The goal is to not have that and race back to the line side-by-side and have some fun. That is the goal every time you get behind someone or beside someone, to pass them clean. When you are on the edge of out of control all the time it doesn’t take much to step over it.”
ARE YOU OKAY WITH NO PENALTY FOR EITHER OF YOU? “Of course. I don’t see where there should have been a fine for anything. I didn’t see anything wrong.”
IF YOU GET MADE ENOUGH TO TAKE A SWING AT SOMEBODY, DO YOU FEEL YOU CAN SWING AT THEM AND BE OKAY WITH NASCAR? “No, that is not the way I do things. I feel that as a representative of Shell and Pennzoil and Ford and more importantly Roger Penske and the image he puts out there, I am responsible when I put on this fire suit. I feel like he expects me to be as professional as I can possibly be. That being said, there are a lot of situations that get heated and there is emotion because it is competition There is plenty of emotion out there in these races constantly. You can watch Radio Active every week on Race Hub. We have all seen it. It is just part of sport and part of competition. Emotions flare and everyone reacts differently. It is hard to react the way you want to sometimes when things get heated but like I said, I get it and I don’t really see where there should be a penalty for that. Nobody got hit. I don’t see where there should be.”
HOW CLOSE DID YOU COME TO GETTING PUNCHED IN THE FACE? “I don’t know. You took the video. I said, I have ninja moves man! I slipped.”
DALE JUNIOR SAYS THAT IS “FAKE NEWS”, HE SAYS YOU GOT HIT. WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE? “I didn’t see him there, did you? There was a lot going on, but I didn’t see him around me. I can say that I didn’t feel anything. It sure didn’t hurt.”
