Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Saturday, March 9, 2019
EVENT: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Final Practice Driver Availability (Joey Logano)
Logano posted the fastest lap in happy hour practice at 137.793 mph. He’s scheduled to start 12th in tomorrow’s race.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR CAR IS AFTER PRACTICE? “We made some good gains on it over the last few practices. I feel like we were a little bit off yesterday in qualifying trim – in practice and in qualifying – and I’d say the first practice today we made a little bit more progress, but still wasn’t there and got a lot closer, especially in the short run. We’ve got a lot of short-run speed. I haven’t looked at the lap tracker to see how we could hold on. We ran a pretty long run there the last run and it feels like we fall off a little bit, but you always don’t feel very good on old tires. You just kind of base it off what other cars are running. We know we need to work on it either way, but as far as speed-wise I’m not really sure where we stack up late, late in the run. I’m encouraged by the signs of hope. The car got faster because before then I felt like we were gonna be running around 10th or so, and now I feel like I’ve got a car that if we’re in the right position we can get up front and really lead a lot of laps. I just want to see what it’s like on a long run.”
HOW WAS TIRE WEAR? “I haven’t looked at the wears yet, but the falloff, we take off running thirties and finish running teens after about 30 laps, so you’re about a second. Tires will mean something for sure. It’s tough to pass, really tough to pass. The dirty air is gonna be rough, so we’re really gonna have to pay attention to that, but tires do fall off so that strategy game will be an interesting play throughout the day to see what teams do as far as when they put tires on or if they do two depending on when cautions fall and all that. Just like every other week so far this is a new rules package for us and the way it’s gonna race is an unknown what it’s gonna be like in a big group on restarts and what it’s gonna be like on a long run when we spread out and you’re just in a little bit of traffic will be a learning curve for all of us.”
DENNY SAID THE BIG BLADE MADE A BIG DIFFERENCE. DOES IT UPSET THE CAR WHEN YOU’RE RUNNING NEXT TO OTHER CARS IN TERMS OF THE SIDE DRAFT? “In practice there’s not a lot of running side-by-side. There’s following each other, but usually when someone gets underneath you you’re like, ‘Alright, I’m not gonna race you and be that guy in practice.’ What it’s gonna be like as far as when a car gets loose or a car gets next to you what it’s gonna be like I don’t know. I know behind a car it’s rough, it tough, it’s really hard. The car’s balance changes dramatically and it goes from one way to the other way to the other way and you get your tires really angry at you and it’s hard to recover once you get to that point. It’s gonna be tough. There’s gonna be some tire management when you’re in traffic to make sure that you have something for the long run because you don’t have track bar adjusters to save you, which is good. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. The track bar adjuster used to get you out of a hole when you needed it and now everyone’s got to be a little bit smarter on how they use their tires to make sure they’re good after a pass.”
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED — HAS THAT BEEN A BIG ADJUSTMENT GETTING RID OF THE TRACK BAR ADJUSTER? YOU USED IT A LOT. “I never wanted it in the first place and I never really liked it, but it’s a tool that was there so you have to use your resources. Yes, I ended up using it a lot, but I really feel like it’s just a crutch for when teams don’t hit the setup just right or early in a race. It doesn’t help the comers and goers. I thought it made less passes on the race track because of it because you can save yourself with it, so I’m a big fan of getting it away. I tried to be getting it away since we got it and just trying to get rid of it, so I’m glad it’s gone. That way you have cars that you either focus on being good on restarts or be good on the long run and you’re not gonna have a car that can do both. I think that’s good for racing and it’s good for the race fans.”
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF SUAREZ AND HIS TECHNIQUE? “Don’t screw with him, that’s what I learned (laughing). He’s like the new Carl Edwards. He’s a tough guy. Holy cow. He’s got some muscles on him. Yeah, don’t piss him off (laughing).”
OR DREW BLICKENSDERFER. “I heard he was a wrestler in high school. They had moves. That was interesting – good to know.”
