Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Friday, November 1, 2019
AAA Texas 500 | MEDIA AVAILABILITY
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 AAA Insurance Ford Mustang
DENNY HAMLIN MADE A COUPLE OF COMMENTS TODAY. HE THOUGHT YOUR CREW CHIEF WAS NOT IN CONTROL OF YOUR TEAM AND THAT WAS PART OF WHY THERE WAS A FIGHT. HE ALSO SAID WHEN ASKED WHETHER YOU WERE JUST TRYING TO GET IN HIS HEAD THAT YOU WERE JUST NOT THAT SMART. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE A RIVALRY OR JUST DON’T LIKE EACH OTHER OR WHAT? “I am sure he will turn it in that way. Here are the facts. I think Todd (Gordon) has great control of our race team and is a great crew chief and does a great job leading all of us. I said it after the race to TV that I probably shouldn’t have gone down there looking for an apology for something he probably wasn’t going to apologize for and I let my emotions get the best of me. That was a mistake on my part. I probably didn’t handle that correctly. It doesn’t make what he did on the race track right but I think at the same time he will probably play that card as much as he wants, he can run his mouth as much as he wants. I am going to run my race and we will see who ends up ahead.”
ARE YOU RIVALS? ENEMIES? “I don’t know. Time will tell.”
HE ACTUALLY OWNED THE THING ON THE RACE TRACK AND SAID THAT WAS A MISTAKE ON HIS PART BUT HE ALSO SAID THAT AS A MAN HE WASN’T GOING TO LET YOU TOUCH HIM. “That is fine. He didn’t own up to it when we talked about it at the time. For me, as a man, the frist thing I do is own up to my mistakes. I probably would have walked down to him if I did the same thing and said I was sorry and that I screwed up. That is what sent me off the edge. Like I said, I am regretful of the way I handled it. I let someone affect my character and that is something I am not proud of. We get stronger from these moments and you live and you learn and you move on. It is part of our sport and part of the situation, part of the playoffs. You guys all have something to talk about now.”
IS HE MAYBE TRYING TO PLAY HEAD GAMES? “He can try. I am a little tougher than he thinks.”
TO BE CLEAR, WHEN YOU HAD YOUR BRIEF CONVERSATION ON PIT ROAD, HE NEVER TOOK RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT HAPPENED, IS THAT RIGHT? “Not in the way I expected. He just said he needed all the space. I don’t know. I was there. I couldn’t give any space. I was in the wall.”
HOW DO YOU RACE HIM THE REST OF THE YEAR? “The way I want to.”
IS HE UNDERESTIMATING YOU? “He might. I am sure he does inside his mind. Anytime something like this happens, the games are played. He is handling it a different way than I would have but we aren’t the same person and that is okay. Whatever you are into. However you want to handle things. Like I said, I am not proud of the way I handled it but I am going to be man enough to fess up to that and own that. Outside of that, I move on and whatever he wants to say, I could really give a crap.”
IS THERE ANYTHING WRONG WITH THE TWO OF YOU GETTING MAD, BATTLING IT OUT NOW AND THEN? “I mean, there are probably pros and cons to it either way. I think it is probably good for the sport looking back at it. It gives a lot of people something to talk about. As long as it doesn’t affect you and your race team I don’t think there are really many negatives to it. I think our team is strong enough to kind of withstand this media storm or whatever you want to call it. I think we are plenty strong enough to get through it. We are a championship team. We can’t let something this small get to us. We all know better and know how to do that.”
FOUR YEARS AGO TODAY WAS THE DAY BETWEEN YOU AND MATT KENSETH WHEN HE PUT YOU IN THE WALL. WHAT IS IT ABOUT YOU THAT DRAWS THIS CONTROVERSY? “I don’t know. It beats me.”
WHAT IS THE DRIVER CODE AT THIS POINT BETWEEN NON-PLAYOFF DRIVERS AND PLAYOFF DRIVERS? “Everyone has something to race for. You hope to have space and respect out there but I am a racer, a hard racer and I won’t shy away from that. I understand that other people have things to race for. I am smart enough to realize that. Whether you are racing for 25th in points or racing for a transfer spot it doesn’t make my race any more important than theirs. Maybe that 25th spot in points is a big bonus for their team from the sponsor. Maybe that is a big manufacturer thing or just trying to get you a job for next year. Those are the things that you have to take a step back and look at the big picture and try to understand why everyone has to race as hard as they do, trying to get every spot they can. I understand that. That is why I race as hard as I can. I think sometimes you feel like what you are doing is the most important thing in the world. I am sure at times we all feel like that, no matter what your job is. In the grand scheme of things you are just another bug on this planet trying to make ends meet. That is probably the same for most everyone.”
ARE YOU MORE CAREFUL AROUND DENNY ON THE TRACK? “I have nothing to be careful about, he wrecked me. I don’t race him any differently. I am not sure he has handled this the smartest way so far.”
HAVE YOU TALKED AT ALL OUTSIDE OF AT THE TRACK? “No.”
YOU ARE NEVER INVOLVED IN LIKE A MINI DISAGREEMENT, YOU ARE ALWAYS IN THE MAJOR DISAGREEMENTS OR AM I MISREADING THAT? “Yeah, I guess that means we are running up front and racing for wins. That is what that means. You are up there and trying to win. The mini disagreements are when you are running 20th. If you are running up front and in the top-five they become escalated.”
HOW ABOUT THE IMPERSONATION HE DID OF YOU: “He missed it a little bit. Listen, he affected my character once, I am not going to let him do that again by throwing trash at someone and who they are and things like that. What happened was something on the race track and what happened afterwards was a lot of emotions and that is all I can control.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE INTENSITY AND PRESSURE IS AMPED UP THIS YEAR IN THE PLAYOFFS MORE SO THAN IN THE PAST? “Intensity is ratcheted up because of what this rules package does. All the cars are closer together, so the intensity is up a little bit more because a mistake on the track isn’t a two or three spot loss because there were three cars within three-seconds. Now there are 10 cars within three-seconds so if you make a mistake you lose four, five or six spots. The intensity is high because mistakes are more costly.”
HOW DIFFERENT IS IT THIS YEAR COMING HERE NOT LOCKED INTO THE CHAMPIONSHIP 4? “We have been in this spot before too. We have been in both spots before. You would like to be the one locked in. That is a really great place to be. We are still in a great spot. We are still in if it was over right now. Obviously there are a lot of things that can happen in two races. We have to be solid for the next two weeks. If we win one, great. We have to be solid the next two, which I think we can do.”
WHAT MAKES A GOOD HANDLING CAR AT TEXAS? “You want something you can be aggressive with. Something that can race in traffic. This is a race track that is challenging to pass but it is also you are in traffic the whole time. You are always behind the car and the draft means so much but you have to be able to move around the race track and try to find air where you can and make passes when other cars make mistakes. You have to be in the hunt so when other cars make a mistake you can be there. You also have to have enough turn in your car to be able to be there on the long run as tires wear out and fuel burns off, you have to have something that turns for you. That is the challenging part, putting those things together.”
