Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Friday, August 9, 2019
Consumers Energy 400 Media Availability — Joey Logano
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang — YOU SET A LOT OF RACING RECORDS WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG. WHAT MOTIVATED YOU AND KEPT YOU GOING WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER? “That is really awesome for you. We probably have a lot of similarities with you stepping into a tough situation right? Here you are, how old are you? 12. Okay. You are here with a bunch of media members that have been in here for way longer than 12 years. For you to step up in those situations and be mature way past your age takes a lot of courage. It takes a lot. That is hard to do. You learn at an accelerated rate because you put yourself around people that are smarter than you and that is how you learn. Similar for me, I moved up really young, before I was ready and got put into very challenging positions and because of that it accelerated my career at a quicker rate than it would have if I had just raced around kids my own age. It is harder, no doubt, but there is a bigger reward if you can battle through it and come out on the other end. That is kind of where I am at now. You are down in here getting ready and doing things like this, so that is awesome for you. That is great.”
WITH AN AVERAGE FINISH OF 15TH IN THE LAST SEVEN RACES, IS THAT SOMETHING TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT? “Oh, I wasn’t ready for that. Okay. Well, not necessarily. Obviously we want to be better than that and we want to be winning but I think when you look at the way we have called some races to go for stage points, it probably has a little bit to do with that. Watkins Glen was just a horrible weekend, there is no excuse for that one. Pocono we had our own set of issues that was a little bit unique but we scored a bunch of stage points but didn’t get the finish we wanted. I could go through all the races and make an excuse for each one of them on why we finished where we did but I wouldn’t say that our speed has been 15th. The last few, really Watkins Glen was its own beast so I kind of write that one off until we get back there next time. Really I don’t feel like our speed has been that far off. I do feel like the field is closed up a lot over the last few weeks from what we had early in the season which means we need to try to move ahead again. That is the biggest thing. As you get closer to the playoffs everyone is going to try to find and dig deeper down inside and find that little extra and we are getting to that point in the season where you have to start finding it and be ready to come out guns blazing and start the playoffs ready to rip. I don’t feel like we are are farther off or further ahead than we were last year when we won the championship so I feel pretty good about it.”
YOU SPOKE ON THE RADIO THIS MORNING ABOUT THE POLITICS OF THE SPORT AND HOW YOU KEEP A LIST. IS IT A MATTER OF CAUTION WHEN DEALING WITH THOSE PEOPLE? “Yeah, I think it is part of sports that you have to kind of keep in mind who you are competing against, not only yourself but other rivalries. I think it is important to know a little bit of the status of what is going on because you don’t want to get caught up in something they are doing just because you were close to it. Being aware of the situations is key. I think it is important to try to keep up with that as much as possible. You don’t want to let it consume you. It isn’t the most important thing but it is part of the game that we all need to be aware of one way or another. I lean on my wife because I try to surround myself with people smarter than me and she is quite a bit smarter than I am, so that works out good for me.”
BRAD SAID HE LETS NASCAR SET THE LINE FOR IF THINGS ARE TOO AGGRESSIVE, DO YOU AGREE WITH YOUR TEAMMATE? “Yeah. There is no written rule. It is kind of just what you have seen in the past and you can kind of read between the lines of what is okay and what is not.”
PJ1 IS ON THE TRACK HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME. WHAT IS YOUR OPINION OF THAT? “I have been all good with the PJ1 pretty much anywhere we have gone so far. I think it has nothing but help and improve the racing and widen the race track out. Obviously it is the first time for it here and we were all in qualifying trim the first practice and we didn’t touch it. I watched Truck practice and it looked like they were flirting with it but they haven’t committed to it yet. It looked like it might be a little high up there. I think NASCAR has done a good job at trying to have the drivers, Goodyear and the teams to collaborate and understand what is the best place to put it to improve the racing, even after the race, coming back to you to ask what we think and trying to grow a notebook on how to improve it. That is great. I think that is good and there is nothing wrong with trying to make it better. I don’t think the product is awful to start with but if we widen the race track out and make more room to build runs and see more three-wide racing to where when the guy gets to the outside is just hanging on and loses 10 spots on a restart. The PJ1 is something that we are all still learning about and we are learning about how it works at each surface. It works different at Charlotte than it does at Michigan or Bristol or Kentucky. The way it gets activated and wears out and how much grip it actually puts back into the race track. Those are all things that we are trying to figure out and as a sport we are trying to figure it out. I like the avenue we are going down and playing with.”
YOU HAVE HAD SUCCESS AT THIS TRACK, WON THREE TIMES. DO YOU PREFER THIS TRACK WITH A SINGLE GROOVE OR DOES IT MATTER TO YOU? “I don’t think so. You just have to be willing to adapt. This is a good race track for Team Penske and the 22 team in particular. You have to be willing to adapt because what it took to win here in the spring was completely different than what it took to win here the last few times. You just have to be willing to change it up and it will be different than the spring race. A lot of teams brought different cars back and different body builds. Everyone learned a lot in the spring race that will affect the race and the traction compound up there, that can put a whole new set of questions into play. You just have to be willing to adapt even though it is a good track and you want to kind of continue that trend of what has worked for you and keep going with it, you have to be willing to step outside the box as well.”
WHEN YOU THINK OF DRIVERS MOST LIKELY TO USE THE BUMPER OR SIDE DRAFT YOU TOUGH, WHO ARE SOME OF THE DRIVERS THAT COME TO MIND? “I am not going to sit up here and name names but there are plenty of them out there. It seems that it is the way you have to race these days. There is a time for it. You don’t do it every lap but there is a time that the aggression level will get you forward on the race track. There are times it will put you backwards into the fence. You just have to be smart with what you do and when you do it. I think there is a level that is accepted and there is also a line, just like anything else.”
