One thing is certain. Team Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano are sure-fire bets to be championship contenders in 2017. They sat down with the media at the CMS Media Tour Wednesday and gave their thoughts on a variety of subjects. The two drivers won seven races in 2016 (four by Keselowski and three by Logano) and Logano just missed the championship when he and Carl Edwards got together on a late restart. Logano finished second to Jimmie Johnson in the championship run. He believes NASCAR’s new points-for-winning-stages approach provides the nine-year veteran with a golden opportunity to capture his first series title.
“I know it’s going to be the right thing for the sport,” Logano said. “Every lap became more important. Every race became way more important and that’s good for everyone. The way this whole format is structured is for a reason, for everyone to race hard and put on a great race for our fans. I don’t see anything but good things coming out of it so I’m really excited about everything coming up for this sport.
“It plays to the person’s advantage who takes the opportunity ahead of him. When there are changes like this, the first person who figures it out is going to have a huge advantage. If you can get some bonus points early in the year it sets you up well for when you get to Homestead.“
Keselowski, the 2012 series champion, won four races last year but wound up 12th in the standings after an up-and-down 10-race playoff. An enhanced format, Keselowski said, “re-fosters the connection between the regular season and the postseason.”
“It’s important from the teams’ and drivers’ sides because it keeps us honest,” he added. “It keeps us from, not necessarily taking races off but keeping us from saying, ‘Let’s not take our best car to this race.’ Our fans deserve to know that whatever they see on the weekend is guaranteed to be important. As drivers, I think you’re going to see more of a desire and an anger factor when things don’t go your way in the regular season.”
Keselowski was part of the team of drivers, owners, track executives, team executives, and NASCAR who devised the new format.
Logano was asked if the boos he hears at introduction bother him.
“I secretly love it. Don’t tell anybody. In all honesty, yeah, I would rather be loved than hated but I would rather them say something than nothing. In all honesty, Martinsville is the race track that I think they dislike me the most. I can tell usually by the pick-up truck ride and counting the number of birds I get. All I can think of is how cool it would be to win there and do a big burnout. That would be the coolest. That is motivation to me. I do like that people like me and my fans that support me as a person and as a race car driver.”
Keselowski, the 2012 champion, hasn’t made it to the final four since he was holding the trophy at Homestead a little over four years ago. How does this format, which he had a hand in, help him?
“The format changes, I’m not looking to take any credit publicly or otherwise for getting anything changed here. There was a lot of collaboration. There were certainly some things that some people pushed for harder than others, but I don’t want to get into the credit and blame game of what works and what doesn’t work.
“What stood out to me is when people don’t like something it’s like 100 percent negative feedback, but when the majority likes it, and the minority dislikes it, it’s about 50 percent, so what stood out to me is the feedback has been about 50 percent, which tells me the majority likes it and is gonna give it a shot. That’s extremely encouraging to me.
“Of course, there is always a resistance to change. I think a lot of people want to see it in action, and that’s great. The people that want to see it in action, I am 100 percent convinced they’re gonna like what they see and it’s gonna work out well. The people that are willing to give it a shot, I think are gonna fall back in love with NASCAR.”
