Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Friday, June 21, 2019
EVENT: Toyota Save Mart 350 Media Availability
Joey Logano Media Availability
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang — HOW DID THE CAROUSEL EFFECT THE PRACTICES FOR YOU? “I think it affected us before we got here trying to figure out what it was going to take to go fast through the carousel but still have the control you need through the rest of the race track. You have a few laps trying to figure out where you are going and what you need in your car and then start working on it. We all have plenty of time to work on it and figure it out. The thing that is still an unknown is how it races. We got behind some cars in traffic in practice to see what effect it has to your car and those little things. There are a lot of unknowns until we race in all honesty.”
WHAT ADVICE CAN YOU GIVE TO ROSS CHASTAIN AFTER HIS TRUCK RACE DQ BEING THAT YOU HAD AN ENCUMBERED WIN? IS THER ANYTHING YOU LEARNED THAT CAN HELP ROSS? “You just keep going. There is not much you can do. Maybe I am not the best one to give the advice. It took us a year and a half to recover. Maybe I am not the best to answer that. I don’t know. It stinks. It stinks for everybody. It is not great for the sport, not great for their race team in particular or Ross or anyone. You take your hits and you keep on going. You don’t quit. You keep on pushing and try to figure it out. You move on from there. I don’t think he needs much advice. I am pretty sure he will be just fine. He is a pretty good race car driver and he is showing that lately. I am sure he will get through this and the way that truck runs I wouldn’t be surprised if they get another win.”
WITH THE WISDOM AND EXPERIENCE YOU HAVE GAINED THE LAST FEW YEARS, ARE YOU A BETTER DRIVER NOW THAN YOU HAVE EVER BEEN? “Oh yeah. For sure. You always get better. That is why in this sport and in a lot of sports it is hard for the youth to compete with the old veterans, the guys that have been around a long time and been through things. You have been through all the stuff, been here and done that in a lot of situations. Nothing is new to you. You know how to prepare, handle pressure and adversity and drama. You have been through it. You have been there. Until you go through this stuff, a lot of times you just don’t know. You can lean on as many retired race car drivers as you want but you have to figure out what works for you. What works for somebody else doesn’t typically work for you a lot of times. You have to find your grove and who you are as a racer and a person and how you want to handle situations. You can kind of keep going from there. That is why you get drivers in the sport that find a home and they keep going for a long time because they just keep getting better. Look at Kevin (Harvick) and Jimmie (Johnson). These guys have been out here a long time and they are not falling off. They are still really good and using their wisdom to their advantage. If there is any way you fall off from age, and I don’t know if there is or not, they are able to overcome it with their wisdom.”
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT NEXT WEEK AT CHICAGOLAND? “You will have cars, I think, right up against the wall and on the bottom of the race track. I always thought Chicago was like a mini Fontana. I always looked at it that way. There is some tire wear, so bumps, fairly flat, just smaller. There are different lanes on the race track and the way the seams are on the race track it looks to me just like Auto Club. When I see Chicagoland that is what I think of, so I don’t think the race will look much different than that.”
SOME FOLKS SAY DRIVING THROUGH THE CAROUSEL CAN MAKE YOU FEEL QUEASY. HAVE YOU FELT ANYTHING LIKE THAT? “No. There is a little bit of a jump and then you kind of go up and you crest the hill and go down for awhile. You obviously feel those forces on your body but nothing that is unexpected. You can see the incline and you know that will create some pressure and create some grip right before you have no grip when you get to the top of the hill. I call it the jump. I think it is a jump. If you go fast enough you can probably jump it. I will let somebody else try that first. That is where wisdom comes in, you let somebody else jump it first.”
WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS WEEKEND THAT MAKES EVERYONE IN SUCH A GOOD MODE COMPARED TO THE TYPICAL RACE WEEKEND? “Wait til Sunday afternoon. There will be only one person in a good mood. This place can piss me off like no other, believe me. There haven’t been many times I am smiling leaving Sonoma. No, it does have a different vibe. The scenery is different, you are road racing. To me the intensity level is just as high. I want to win here as bad as anybody to try to get something and make something happen here. I think our two toughest race tracks for Team Penske is Sonoma and Dover. We just really want to figure it out. There is a lot of effort that gets put into this race track from back at the shop and the way we prepare to when we get here. We keep trying different things. HOpefully we hit on something. It seems there are teams and drivers that hit on something here and it goes forever. It seems like the same cars go fast here, no matter what the rules package is and what the track layout is. it seems like it is the same cars that go fast here. They figure out how to make the tires last on the car. You aren’t going to see anything different when it comes around to Sunday. You will see the same cars that have been fast here the last four or five years be fast again. it already looks like it based on practice. They might be sleeping easy and drinking wine but I won’t be doing that.”
CAN YOU COMMENT ON ROGER (PENSKE) BEING AWARDED THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM? “Yeah, what an amazing honor for him. Those awards, you think about what Roger has been able to accomplish as an American and as a business owner and motorsports tycoon. The guy is amazing with what he has done. Indy 500 wins, championships, all racing different types of series’ across the world. To me that is incredible. The selflessness that he shows, which honestly doesn’t show but he is with the way he supports charitable initiatives and does it quietly. I think that says a lot about a person. I think it is much deserved. I am excited for him. You think of some of the awards he has won lately with the Hall of Fame and now this, it is something he should be very proud of. I am honored to know the guy. It is incredible to work for him.”
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON GOING BACK TO DAYTONA NEXT MONTH WITH HANDLING BEING SO IMPORTANT THERE AND THE HEAT? “You caught me off guard a little bit here, that is a few weeks out. You are right, Daytona always has more handling effect than Talladega and we haven’t brought this rules package there yet. It won’t have as much handling characteristics that are challenging as much as it used to be there. The downforce that is added to these cars will have significantly more grip than what we used to have although everyone just trims them out more and more to try to overcome that and get all the drag out and that takes all the handling back out. It still has more handling than they used to. The pack seems to be closer, the runs are harder to stop. That is how it was in Talladega and it won’t be any different. You have that big blade and being out front is pretty challenging. It is harder than it used to be because that bubble behind the car seems to be smaller.”
HOW ABOUT THE EXTRA HORSEPOWER? “We have a few hundred more pounds of drag on the car too if you look at it that way, so it kind of levels back out.”
DO YOU FEEL THE DQ FOR ROSS WAS MORE DEVASTATING THAN WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? DOES IT SEND A MESSAGE AT ALL TO THE CUP GARAGE THAT NASCAR IS WILLING TO GO THAT FAR? “No doubt. It definitely sends a message. We all watched it. Wherever we were, I think everyone had their TV on watching and at least hearing about it in the news this week. It was devastating for a lot of different reasons. First and foremost you think of points. You think of the benefits of the win, the playoff points, getting into the playoffs in their situation, it is as if they didn’t show up. That is a pretty big deal. But I think for that team in particular, you think of the money. Wasn’t there a $50,000 bonus for winning that? And there was a stage win. Yeah, that is a hit. A huge hit. Those truck teams aren’t necessarily rolling in sponsor dollars out there. It is tough for them. It is a big hit.”
DID THE ACTUAL DQ OF NOT BEING ABLE TO KEEP THE WIN RESONATE? “The stat and the trophy? If you are a stat guy I guess it does. If you are into stats and racking them up then I guess it does. Honestly, I think the points are the biggest thing. That is the biggest hit. For them, the cash is as big if not bigger.”
ARE YOU A STATS GUY? “Yeah, I like seeing where we are at and trying to move up through the win list and things like that. Yeah. I like looking at that stuff. Only when I am winning though. (laughter) That year we didn’t win much I didn’t look. Nothing was happening.”
Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Friday, June 21, 2019
EVENT: Toyota Save Mart 350 Media Availability
Ryan Newman Media Availability
RYAN NEWMAN, No. 6 Wyndham Rewards Ford Mustang — THIS SEEMED LIKE A TOUGH SESSION FOR YOU. IS IT THE CAROUSEL OR JUST TRYING TO PUT EVERYTHING TOGETHER? “I am not real sure. We didn’t do a qualifying run. I know we are off on speed but not the speed difference that you saw on the speed charts. I think our Wyndham Rewards Ford is competitive, just not a top-five car right now. We have some work to do to make it better. That is pretty much it. The carousel just took a little bit of learning for me and figuring out braking points and what the car balance is going to be like as it went through the corners. Other than that, I guess maybe a little bit of catch-up for me because I came in with a mindset of 18 or 19 years of what I used to do and it isn’t that anymore.”
WAS IT TOUGH BECAUSE THIS IS ALL BRAND NEW? “No. I got a chance to come out to the track yesterday and they let me drive the pace car around just to kind of get a feel for it. I couldn’t go fast because there were a bunch of people around the race track but I wanted to get an idea of what to expect. It is fine. It will be interesting to see how it races. It is another half mile of distance that hopefully will add some excitement and some passing zones that we kind of needed here.”
WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS THE FIRST TIME THAT THE WHOLE FIELD GOES INTO THE CAROUSEL? “I don’t know. I think it is going to be a challenge when you crest the hill for the first time to see where the accordion effect happens going back toward Turn 3. You will be on the brakes in places you have never been on the brakes before. That will be the biggest challenge I think. Everything else will be kind of the same but that first big check up will be interesting to see how far back it goes back toward Turn 2.”
YOU ARE ON THE BORDERLINE ON POINTS. DO YOU GET INVOLVED IN THE DECISION MAKING OF IF YOU GO FOR STAGE POINTS OR RACE POINTS? “That is up to Graves. He has a better picture of what to expect and hears more of the radio chatter of what guys want to do or might do and has a better understanding of the past. For me it is about going as fast as I can without abusing the race car and having a car at the end that we are competitive enough to have a chance at our best finish. That might be first or 31st, I don’t know. It will be interesting to see how the strategy plays out and who goes for what because no matter what those points are very important. You have half as many points in two stages as you do to win the race. It is risk versus reward I guess.”
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT AT CHICAGO NEXT WEEK? “We got a chance to do the Goodyear tire test up there and we did a couple of mock races I guess you could say. 25 lap runs. We were off compared to the other cars that were there. It was a lot of wide open throttle time. As long as you have a fast car that is okay. If you are wide open and not going fast enough then it is miserable as a driver because you can’t do anything to make up for that. They frown on it when you cut across the infield. It is like having a slow go-kart at the go-kart track. You just want to restart the race and get in a different kart. I don’t know if it will be like that for the race but that is what was like at the test, wide open after 25 laps. A lot of people have learned a lot about that package since we tested there but it was more wide open throttle time than I expected for a track that usually loses quite a bit of grip like Chicago.”
ANY CONSIDERATION TO RUNNING ELDORA AGAIN? “I would like to do it if the situation was right and I had the right opportunity. It was fun last year and I don’t regret at all the opportunity that I had. I had a lot of fun, just got caught up in somebody else’s crash. If something fell in my lap, then yes, but I don’t want to take away from what I am doing here to focus on something outside of the Cup garage.”
DID YOU FEEL THE TIRES YOU WERE WORKING WITH AT CHICAGOLAND HELPED AT ALL WITH THE GRIP? “It is hard to say because everything is so different with the aero and horsepower package part of it. The tires felt fine. They didn’t feel anything crazy different than what we have had in the past which has been kind of the situation this year in my opinion. I think they will be fine.”
WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS AT DAYTONA WITH THIS PACKAGE SINCE IT HAS TRADITIONALLY BEEN A BIG HANDLING TRACK? “I don’t know. I have been very vocal about keeping the cars on the race track and since Larson just walked in I think he has some answers for you on that one. That is my biggest pet peeve. Whatever we do needs to put on a good race but be safe for the drivers and safe for the fans. What Kyle’s (Larson) car did at Talladega was unacceptable. I don’t know what changes have been made, if any changes have been made, and what we will do to try to keep that from happening when we go back to Daytona but it needs to not happen. We will see. Whoever has the best drag, downforce package at Daytona, we will know at the end of the race.”
