JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Ford Fusion – HOW IS THE EXPANSION AT TEAM PENSKE GOING? “We are not going to grow without being ready and having the right mix of people to do that and everything in the right place. Right drivers, right sponsors, right crew. It all has to be in the right place for Roger to do what he is doing right now. I think adding Blaney as a third team I think will be a great decision. I think Paul in the 21 will be a good addition to our team as well with the alliance we have with the Wood Brothers. As close as well all work together I look at that as a teammate anyway because we work so close together. I think a lot of good things will come from that.”
YOU DROVE THE ROVAL IN A MUSTANG THE OTHER DAY. WHAT WAS GOING ON OUT THERE? YOU WERE TAKING SOME PRETTY HOT LAPS. “They asked me if I wanted to go out there for the media day and I said, ‘Sure, you have a Ford for me to drive?’ and that Mustang showed up and I jumped in it. It was that simple. I talked to them on Friday night and then we did that on Monday afternoon. It happened that quick.”
DID YOU GAIN ANY EXPERIENCE THAT MIGHT HELP YOU? “I was trying to figure out how many bad habits I was picking up by driving that car. That was no joke the easiest car to drive in my life. It had traction control and anti-lock brakes and it gained more grip the harder I ran it. It was crazy. So different from how our stock cars drive. That Mustang was amazing. I got to make some laps on the track and there will be so many changes to the track that it probably won’t be very valuable at all. I really wanted to drive something too. It has been awhile for me. We didn’t do any offseason testing so I am going nuts. Driving anything is good for me at this point.”
YOU ARE A DAD NOW. HOW HAS THAT CHANGED YOUR LIFE? “It is a game changer. I tell you what. It is something else. It is awesome. It is so crazy to be able to hold a child in your hands and know that is your son. It is crazy. Just to think what he is going to be some day and all the stories that we are going to have and to be able to share in what his life is going to be. There is no telling what it is going to be. Whatever he wants it to be. All that opportunity that sits right in your hands is amazing. It is super cool. Super challenging. There is a lot of hard stuff that goes along with it too, believe me. But it is all worth it. It is really neat. I am excited to see what the next stages are going to be. We are at the stage where he can’t even really hold his head up. To see how he changes as a person will be really cool.”
YOU ARE IN A UNIQUE POSITION OF HAVING BEEN AROUND ALSO IN YOUR 20’s. YOUR TOUGHTS ON NASCAR’S MARKETING PUSH AND THE DIRECTION IT IS GOING WITH THE YOUNG DRIVERS. “Here is how I look at that. NASCAR has to promote youth in our sport. They have to show that there is new, young talent coming into our sport. There are a lot of greats that have retired and will be retiring in the next few years and we need to replace them with big names. NASCAR understands that and I understand that. I get that. I don’t think it is just a big push on young drivers. Yes, is there? Yes, there should be. But there is also a push on the current drivers that have been here and accomplished a lot already. I know that because you can turn on a football game that has a ton of people watching it and they are promoting the Daytona 500 and who is on it? It isn’t William Byron and these guys that are just coming in. It is Harvick and me and Kyle Busch and Brad, Denny Hamlin – it is guys that have been here a long time. They are still getting that love or whatever you want to call it. That publicity. It is important for our sport to realize that we need to keep the eyes on the drivers that are winning and making sure that we show that the talent and what they have accomplished in our sport. We also need to show the growth and youth coming into our sport. I think as a competitor and as somebody that wants to see our sport grow, which is important for all of us, drivers, teams, media, all of us to keep our jobs, we better see our sport grow. I think this is important. NASCAR sees that. I get it. Selfishly we all want the spotlight on us all the time. You want the spotlight on your sponsor and what you have done. You want to get the credit when you win races. You will get that. If you win the races they are going to have to talk about you. I think also, there is a big story right now with young drivers coming in and that is great. I don’t really know where I fit into it baceuse I am about the same age as them but I have been here for 10 years. It is kind of weird.”
DO YOU FEEL SLIGHTED IN A WAY? YOU SHOULD BE ONE OF THOSE YOUNG DRIVERS RIGHT? “I don’t know where to put me. I don’t know. My job is to win races. That all will take care of itself, as long as I do my job on the race track and I like that I am in a unique spot and I am okay in not being included in the young group and I am okay not being included with the guys that have been here forever. It puts me in a different spot. A lot of times being different is the best way to get better.”
YOUR TEAM HAD A LOT OF DISSAPOINTMENT LAST SEASON. HOW DO YOU RALLY AND COME BACK THIS YEAR? “Last year was a trying year. I don’t want to say struggle. I am not sure that is the right word for it. We learned a lot. The biggest thing we learned was to be able to be a little more open minded about things. We started to be open minded at the end of the season. We probably waited a little too long. When you find something that works for you and you are able to keep evolving off of that foundation that you built that works and you keep building off of something and then the rules change and things change and then all of a sudden that doesn’t work anymore, it is really hard to just knock over what you built and start all over. It is very challenging to get yourself to think that openly. As a driver, I have had to change. Todd (Gordon) has had to change. The way we set up our cars has had to change. But you have to to be able to get back up front. I think that is what happens a lot of times in sports. You see some of these great teams go out there and win a championship and then they next year you are like, ‘What happened to these guys?’ The sport changes. It evolves and you have to evolve with it and we are a little late to the game. If you look at the last five or six races we started running in the top-five more often and I think with the new Hawkeye system and the gains we have made in the offseason – well, you never know until the season starts, but I have enough confidence and I am believing the stories my team is telling me that we are going to be really good this year. I honestly do believe that. I think we will go out there and redeem ourselves. There is a little extra motivation there. Ready to get back out there. We know we are a championship team. Nothing has changed from two years ago when we almost won the championship. It is the same group. Nothing has changed. We know we can still do that. Let’s go. Is Daytona here yet?”
MOTIVATION MUST BE AT AN ALL TIME HIGH FOR YOU GUYS? “Yeah, we never want to have that feeling again. That sucks. Not being in the playoffs is no fun. I think after going through that and living that horror film, you don’t want to do that again. There is plenty of motivation to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
WHAT DO YOU DO ON RACE DAY TO GET YOUR MIND IN THE RIGHT PLACE? “I think everyone probably has their own routine. I don’t think it is just race day. You can have your little routine on race day but the prep starts way before that. For me to have confidence I need to be prepared. When I don’t know what is coming at me I have no confidence because I have no idea what the battle is ahead of me. When I have done my homework during the week I feel really confident when I come to the race track. I feel like we are ready to attack. When I feel like I didn’t do enough work or there is something ahead of me that I don’t know what it is, then I am not as confident. As long as I feel prepared I don’t really have to do anything weird or some weird superstitious thing like wear the same underwear every time. That doesn’t help you win, preparation helps you win.”
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY HOMEWORK? “Watching tapes, communicating with my team, going over notes. The typical stuff. Keeping in shape, that type of stuff that keeps you mentally prepared. That is pretty much what my job is. As a leader you try to keep making sure your team has the same attitude that you’ve got. Attitudes are contagious. You have to make sure that you are pumped up and ready or else nobody else is going to be.”
YOUR OPITION OF THE LIGHTS AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY? “Yeah, well, I think everyone can agree the first race under the lights was eventful. Can we all agree on that? So that was a good thing? Yeah, we will go with good. It was pretty exciting after the race. I haven’t seen that many fans stay around after a race for so long in my career. That was pretty cool to see. I think lights at Martinsville, thumbs up.”
YOU DROVE THE MUSTANG GT4 ON THE ROVAL, WHAT WAS THAT LIKE? “Yeah, I did get to drive it the other day. Got to make a couple laps in the Mustang and see what the track was like. Where some improvements could be made. I think the great thing about what they are doing there at the speedway is they are open minded. They are open to listening to driver opinions and where they can be better. From a safety and racing standpoint. They know this has to be right. They know there is a risk to this thing. You have one opportunity for a first impression. This will be the first impression on the Roval and we need to make sure it is 100%. As a competitor in the sport and someone invested in the sport I want to make sure it is right because I want to see our sport grow. You have to be able to make laps and to put my two cents in was important. Hopefully they take that along with the two-cents that plenty of other drivers and teams and whoever else is out there will put in to make the best possible race track to put on the best possible race for the fans.”
DID YOU SEE THE TRIALS OF LAST YEAR COMING? “No. I didn’t see that coming at all. After you almost win the championship and win a bunch of races the last four years before that. You think making the playoffs is kind of a given. That is kind of the way I thought. 16 drivers, I thought that was a given. I would say it blindsided every one of us. We didn’t think the penalty at Richmond was a big deal. We thought we would go win more races. No big deal. Then it was one thing after another and before we knew it our back was against the wall. We almost won the second Richmond. We came in second. Figures. It is a feeling we never want to have again. We did not see that coming at all.”
WHAT STEPS HAVE YOU TAKEN IN THE OFF SEASON TO HIT THE GROUND RUNNING THIS YEAR? “A lot of work over the offseason. There is only so much work you can do. Unfortunately, we can’t go testing every week like we want to or like we would. Testing is at the simulator these days. Spending time with each other, talking about races, talking about certain items on the car where we can be better to prepare for the first five or six races. Thinking about where we struggled last year and where we can be better in each department. We go from there. It is the same thing we would have done if we won the championship last year. It just seems like there is a little extra motivation this year because you don’t want to live it again.”
WHAT WERE YOU MISSING LAST YEAR? “Speed. Raw speed. That is easy to say but when you get down in the trenches there are a lot of items that contribute to that lack of speed. I think we have been able to identify a lot of those throughout the season and toward the end of the season and I think over the off season we have made some better gains. Every team is going to make gains. It is hard to say where we will stack up but I think it will be better.”
GOING BACK TO YOUR FIRST COUPLE YEARS IN THE SPORT, DID YOU FEEL ALONE, ON AN ISLAND AS A YOUNG GUY? “Yeah, I think that is probably one of the biggest differences now compared to when I came in. Even Brad was the same way. When we came in there was nobody else coming in. Rookie of the Year wasn’t a big deal because you didn’t have drivers to compete against really. Now, I feel like there is a support group among each other. They are all friends and come in about the same time, race against each other, been racing against each other forever. That is probably pretty nice for them because they come in knowing somebody. One of the things I regret the most is that I was pretty shy and kind of quiet around other racers. These were the guys I idolized as race car drivers and now I am out there competing against them. What do I say to somebody like that? Like, ‘Hey, big fan! I am going to race you today.’ What am I going to say? I would just sit in my own corner at driver intros and not really talk to anyone and it kind of came across that I was a jerk because of that. I wasn’t. I don’t think I was. But it came across that way because I didn’t say hello to everybody and I learned a lot from that lesson. McMurray was one of the first people to come say hello to me. That was a big deal and it helped open me up. I try to do that now because I know how big of a deal that was to me. Not that I am trying to help these kids in their career too much because I have to compete against them, but it is a nice thing to do sometimes. The fact that they have drivers that are their age that are going through the same exact thing they are going to and they can talk to each other about it is pretty nice. That is something I didn’t have. It is great for them. Good for them.”
HARVICK WANTS TO SEE THE CHAMPIONSHIP RACE MOVE TO DIFFERENT VENUES. DO YOU AGREE? IF SO, HOW SOON DO YOU THINK NASCAR NEEDS TO TAKE THAT APPROACH? “Yes. As soon as they can. As soon as possible. I don’t know when possible is but I do think that the final race should be able to move around. Now, I understand some tracks it is too cold. Chance of snow. Things like that, so you probably can’t have the season finale at some tracks. Why not bid it out? I think that is something that is cool. To be able to change that up a little, I think it should be. Homestead-Miami is probably one of the best race tracks we go to. Maybe the best race track we go to. It is a great place to end the season. I am sure you all love going down because it is warm and we go hang out in Miami afterwards and we are so happy the season is over. But I think for the growth of the sport it is important – and I think as a competitor you don’t want to go to the same track every year racing for the championship. It should move around in my opinion. I don’t know. It may never happen. I don’t know if it can happen. I do know it would be cool to see that.”
HOW HAS BEING A FATHER CHANGED YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON LIFE? DO YOU HAVE DIFFERENT PRIORITIES OR VALUE THINGS DIFFERENTLY NOW? “I do. I don’t feel like it has changed my perspective a whole bunch yet. It has on a few things on a few different levels. Mainly that I can’t halfway do something. When I go to work, I have to be 100% at work and when I go home, I have to put my phone down. I have to learn to do that a little better probably. Sometimes it is hard to detach. That is probably one of the biggest things that will be very important moving forward as he gets older. There is a time for work and a time for family. I need to do 100% at each one of those and not try to do 50% at all of them. It doesn’t work. I don’t think that is the best avenue. As far as perspective, I think it probably changes the perspective you have of your parents a lot. I appreciate them a lot more. Not that I didn’t before but holy moly. I sit there in the middle of the night and it is 3 am and he is crying his eyeballs out at me and I think about how my parents had to do this for me. You appreciate that a lot more when that happens. Everyone always says you will know when you have kids. I am starting to just now realize that. Before I would be like, ‘Yeah, whatever you say.’ Holy moly. Last night was great because my brother in-law came by and did my shift because I told him I needed a lot of sleep for today. I have never felt better on seven hours of sleep in my life. Usually it is about four, so this is awesome.”
