Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
YellaWood 500 Media Availability – Talladega Superspeedway
Saturday, October 18, 2025
Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse, has three career NASCAR Cup Series victories at Talladega Superspeedway, including two in the playoffs. He comes into this weekend’s Round of 8 race in seventh place, 24 points below the cut line. He stopped by the infield media center before qualifying to talk about his situation.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW CONFIDENT DO YOU FEEL GOING INTO THE WEEKEND KNOWING ABOUT YOUR PAST SUCCESS ON SUPERSPEEDWAYS? “I guess I’m cautiously optimistic. Everyone says that, but I’d also say it’s kind of where we are at as well. We’ve led a lot of laps, won a lot of stages and even a few races here. With that said, it’s also gone the complete opposite here, but I’m pretty sure that’s the same for everybody in the field at some point at Talladega. I feel confident in our ability and what we can do as a team, and I think we’re very ready for the race from that standpoint. I feel like we’re the favorites to win this thing, but all it takes is one mistake or a mistake from someone else’s part and all of the sudden you’re spun around and backwards. It happens really quick here, so like I said, I’m feeling cautiously optimistic.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THESE NEXT TWO WEEKS ARE MUST-WIN RACES? “No, because we’re in Talladega. If it wasn’t Talladega, maybe I would say it’s a must win, but I still think there’s two avenues to get there. The most simple way would be winning. But considering what Talladega is and how this race can play out, I still think we can point our way in. I don’t want to completely cut that off yet, I still think there’s a chance. Now, if you’re 24 points out going into Martinsville, you probably must win at that point, but there’s still two races and one of them is at Talladega.”
DOES THE GRIND OF BEING 33 RACES INTO THE SEASON BEGIN TO WEIGH ON YOU EVEN WHEN YOU’RE STILL RACING FOR THE TITLE? “Given the fact that you’re still in the playoffs, the grind doesn’t even hit you because you’re still racing for the main prize. I say all the time that the goal during these ten weeks is to have the pressure on you all the way through, because as soon as you’re knocked out, I’m being honest, it sucks. I say all the time that we have one goal as a team when the season starts and that is to win the championship. It’s nothing else. So when the dream dies for that year, it’s horrible. And you still have to go to the racetrack and try to win and build on everything, but that’s when the grind sets in. But I think for us, as competitors, as long as we still have a chance to win, we’re good. And I still feel fresh, which is also good. It means you’re doing all the right things away from the racetrack and making sure you’re ready when you get there and making sure your body feels good and all of those things. All of that has been good.”
DO YOU FEEL AS IF YOU GOT TO GO FOR THE STAGE POINTS? “We got to go for the points in our position. There might be some cars that don’t need to go for the points, or they’re in different positions as we are. You have to know what your competitors’ goals are when you get to the racetrack, especially at a place like here. But for us, we need to get the points. It’s pretty obvious at this point. I think if we get top five in every stage and then top five in both races, we’ll have a chance to point in. That’s my opinion. I don’t know what math backs that up, but it’s just kind of what I think in my mind that we have to do and it’s very possible.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT TALLADEGA HAVING A ROUND OF 8 SPOT? “It is what it is. That’s how I look at things. My job is to win the race, and whatever that looks like and whatever that takes to get to that point. That’s what we got to do. I can tell you one thing, that sitting here and complaining about whatever it may be is not going to help us win the race no matter what regardless of the subject. Sure, we all have opinions but at this point it is what it is and I feel good about it. We got to go out there and try to win it all, right?”
IF THERE’S A MULTI-CAR CRASH AND PLAYOFF DRIVERS ARE INVOLVED, SHOULD PLAYOFF DRIVERS GET PRIORITY FROM THE TOW TRUCK TO BE PUSHED AWAY? “That’s a tough one. I think first you look at who’s wrecked the most and that’s where the safety team should go first. But after that for the tow trucks, I would say, to make it fair, since there’s less of them, you should go to the playoff car first in my opinion. I’m sure there’s more to that equation and why NASCAR makes those decisions that I have no clue of understanding why. But if you’re asking me quickly, without putting much thought into it, the most fair thing would probably be to go to the playoff car first.”
DOES YOUR PROCESS CHANGE WHEN GOING FOR POINTS AS OPPOSED TO OTHER SCENARIOS? “It would. If you were going all or nothing it definitely changes your strategy quite a bit throughout the race. You see that. You see that every weekend in all of the series, probably in the Xfinity Series the most often because there’s part-time drivers competing in that all the time who are going for the win. At Talladega you have to ask yourself a lot of questions at the end of the race, when you go down the back straightaway you’re wondering if you need to win or not and what are you willing to do? And do you go on to live to see the end? Or finish 30th if I make this big, bold move and it doesn’t work? You have to think that stuff through a little bit before it happens.”
Austin Cindric, driver of the No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse, is going for a Talladega Superspeedway season sweep this weekend after winning the Cup event in April. Cindric, who has three career series victories, spoke with the media earlier today.
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse – DOES THE GRIND OF BEING 33 RACES INTO THE SEASON WEIGH ON YOU? “For me, it’s habitual at this point. At the tail end of the summer you do think about how long you’ve been doing this, but otherwise, I think you’re asking the wrong person, because I’m not going to spend a month in Australia racing cars if I were tired. So I’m not sure it bothers me a whole bunch, but you get difficulty with the turnaround times in the middle of weeks. For me, I had a ton of sponsor trips and obligations to do during the week, let alone prepare for the races and then go do the races on the race weekend. So I’d say probably everyone has a stretch that’s more taxing and challenging. If you just gave me the race car driver job, it wouldn’t be too hard to convince me to just keep going.”
HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR POSITION KNOWING YOUR TWO TEAMMATES ARE STILL IN THE PLAYOFFS? “At the end of the day, it’s always very situational, but from a team standpoint, obviously I have to be an asset to those guys throughout the course of the next two weeks and even this past weekend in Las Vegas. I’ve been in that position before, and I understand that. But I think the interesting thing when you look at the field and the playoff grid is that there are two cars from two teams which are both sitting below the cut line. So there’s a wingman for each of those, like the No. 48 is in the same position as me, the No. 54 as well and Hamlin is able to do the same thing for his teammates if he chooses to. Once you go down the list it’s pretty even as far as the opportunity to help your company if the opportunity presents itself. This is the type of racetrack where that would happen more than anywhere else.”
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WREATH OF FLOWERS YOU GOT FOR WINNING THE SPRING RACE? “I haven’t seen it in a while, but the team posted something on social media that there’s two people on the team who have taken it upon themselves to restore that for me, and I’ve yet to see the finished product. But I think it’s something they’ve done before, but it’s definitely something I plan on keeping and displaying, and hopefully have another one.”
WOULD YOU BE IN FAVOR OF A DIFFERENT PLAYOFF FORMAT? “There’s no denying that the current playoff format creates excitement. You see what happened at the end of the round at the ROVAL and I think at the end of the day, our on-track product is exciting. I’m not sure a points format for the championship is going to make or break the fanbase as far as if they’ll enjoy the racing or not. I feel like we are hyperfocusing on something like this. But as far as what’s fair and deserving of a champion? No one’s going to agree, and that’s kind of where I’ve come to. And I’ve been on both sides of it as a competitor, I’d have two Xfinity championships with a full-season points format, but I also would’ve never made the championship four in my first year in the trucks. And I probably would’ve only made the playoffs twice in the Cup Series instead of three times. So at the end of the day, I respectfully say that I don’t care. I don’t think our team necessarily cares, because we just want to go race and whatever the format is, we would like to excel. That’s kind of the basis of it. But I don’t really have a strong opinion on what I think would be the best or what makes the most sense, because I think there are pros and cons either way.”
HOW MUCH DOES THE WAY THE DAYTONA RACE IN AUGUST FINISHED INFORM YOUR PREPARATION FOR THIS WEEKEND? “I think Daytona and Talladega continue to get further apart from me as far as how they relate. You could almost argue the August Daytona race had more similarities to Atlanta than it does to Talladega, so I approach all three tracks as different race tracks on the same package.”
WHEN YOU MENTION THOSE SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS, ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT HOW THE HANDLING IS DIFFERENT ACROSS THOSE TRACKS? “Yep.”
HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO PLAN HOW TO BEST SUPPORT YOUR TEAMMATES DURING A RACE LIKE THIS? “You have to understand the person you’re trying to help because you could easily do the opposite of what you’re intending to do, and that’s why we have all these meetings. Every team and driver is going to have their own team meeting and then they’re going to have an OEM meeting. And you know, you’re going to have to go through all of the information and make sure you and your spotter are on the same page so you can confirm that information you’re getting is accurate enough to help. So it’s definitely an ever-evolving organism. Even as the race changes from past events, you have to continue to evolve. But it’s not like I can just ask Ryan what he thinks about today’s race and how his car is driving while the race is going on, I can’t ask him about anything other than what we talked about beforehand. For Joey and Ryan, they both race this track very differently, and I have to understand what those differences are to best help them because otherwise, I could be just doing nothing while exhausting all of this effort. So it’s very situational, but that’s where your relationships with your teammates are really tested, in those moments. It’s like being a backup quarterback, the offense isn’t built around me in that sense but I have to understand why this is the way it is and how Joey and Ryan are going to go out and race to really understand how I can best impact the team.”
WHAT MAKES TALLADEGA SO SPECIAL? “It’s massive. In every sense of the word. It even has a cool name, I think that goes a long way. Like when you say Talladega, you instantly think of NASCAR, and you instantly think of a bunch of people having a lot of fun, like it’s such a fun thing to say. It makes you feel happy. I think that goes a long way for our sport, for our race fans, and even as the drivers are talking about it with the camping in the infield this weekend, it’s its own thing. But it also is very difficult to describe the scale of the campgrounds and the size of the racetrack, obviously the speed of the cars as well, the crashes and the finishes as always are very exciting. It offers a lot and it’s kind of just its own special place.”
WHAT MAKES THE FALL RACE AT TALLADEGA DIFFERENT FROM THE SPRING RACE? “My car is not yellow this weekend. Past that, I think the drivers really fuel what happens in the race. What the driver’s priorities change a lot during the fall race in particular, because there is a lot of decision making. There’s other factors like grip and handling that impact the race to a certain extent, but the driver’s impact is significant. If there’s enough people, even if the third lane isn’t really working, that think the third lane can work, then the third lane will work. It’s those types of things. Or if there’s people who just need points and know they can’t screw up anything here. If there’s enough people who think that then that’s a factor as well. Or, if there’s enough people who think that they haven’t won this year and they now have to go make something happen with a few races left as well, there’s a lot of those guys too. So I think the mentality is definitely what drives any differences between the two races here. Because otherwise, the weather, the cars, the package, and the tires are all pretty similar. The only thing that changes is between the ears of all the drivers.”
DO YOU KEEP IN MIND WHICH DRIVERS ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS AS YOU GO THROUGHOUT THIS RACE? “I think it’s critical.”
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE YOUNG DRIVERS WHO ARE COMING UP THROUGH THE RANKS? “I think it’s as simple as working hard. I think the people that you see at a lower level, the grassroots level, who are working their tails off are the people I usually end up seeing again in life. Whether or not I was racing legends or other cars, seeing people in other industries as well, that’s always the common thread of the people that I see again at a higher level. It’s always the people that I remember working the hardest. You know, hard work is not going to get you everything. If it did, the mule would own the farm, right? But it’s definitely going to keep you around, and it’s definitely going to make people notice.”
YOU’VE KNOWN CHASE BRISCOE SINCE RACING WITH HIM IN THE TRUCK SERIES WITH FORD, HOW HAVE YOU SEEN HIM EVOLVE OVER THE YEARS? “I’ve enjoyed seeing Chase have the success that he’s had this year. We’ve come up together, become good friends, and obviously have had good competition between the two of us for a bunch of years, but I’m so happy to see him do well. At the same time, he’s always been a measuring stick for me and I feel like we feel the same way about each other from the moment we raced trucks, ARCA, and really anything that we’ve done together. So I feel like I’m a better driver because I’ve had to compete against a guy like Chase. So I feel excited and very motivated when I see him have success, especially what he has been having this year. I mean, you look at his stat line for this year alone and he’s got a great shot to make it to the Championship 4. So I think that’s exciting, but as a competitor who’s often not patient for the success I want, it makes me even more impatient because I feel like I can get there. I can be there. So it’s always good to have someone push you like Chase.”
