Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Friday, May 10, 2019
EVENT: Digital Ally 400 Media Availability
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang — COMPARED TO OTHER PRACTICE SESSIONS THIS YEAR, IT SEEMED LIKE EVERYBODY WAS MORE JUMPING INTO DRAFTING AND FORGOING SINGLE-CAR STUFF: “I think so. I think everyone just realizes that you are going to have a lot of wide-open time here and the more you have the more the draft will come into play. You have to be around other cars for those reasons. The difference between clean air and dirty air, balance wise, is quite a difference because the speed is faster and you don’t have as much downforce. If you go out there and are easy, wide-open by yourself, what are you learning? If you get into traffic like you are going to race, then at least you can start working on your car. It makes it more challenging to work on your car because it is hard to get a consistent run. In the past, the way we have done things is that you want to get clean air to get a clean read on what is going on. You would say, “Well, I was in traffic so maybe the change didn’t do this.” Now it is like, “I am in traffic but every scenario is different. There is a car closer to me this time. I had three cars in front of me instead of six cars in front of me.’ There are a lot of variables to work through. That is challenging. It is kind of the only way to do it though.”
WHO TRACKS THAT? ENGINEERS? ARE YOU TRACKING THE NUMBER OF GUYS IN FRONT OF YOU ON A RUN? “You have somewhat of an idea. I can see. My windshield is clear so I can see through it, which is good. I try to put myself in the position that I want to be to get a decent read. It is hard to do because a car will come in or a couple cars will pull out and you are in a different situation. You have to take it from a global view. It is hard to really pinpoint where exactly in the corner and be as precise as we used to be.”
YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE ALL-STAR RACE STRATEGY NEXT WEEKEND? “The strategy for the All-Star race is always all or nothing. Right? There is a million bucks on the line. That is all that matters. I don’t know who finished second there last year. You go for it. You have nothing to lose. There are no points. It is such a fun race for that reason. If something happens, you go, ‘Oh well.’ and you move on to the next one. You don’t have the penalty that comes with it of not having the points that you lost. You go for it. For me it is one of the most fun, if not the most fun race of the year for me. I really enjoy it. Everyone is so aggressive. Everyone ‘s the same way and has the same mentality. They hang that million dollar carrot out in front of you and we all kick it up a notch. It is fun.”
POCONO, HOMESTEAD AND DARLINGTON PACKAGES HAVE BEEN CHANGED IN TERMS OF THE AIR DUCTS ON THE CAR. YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT? “It is pretty simple. We just haven’t been using much brake. To try to keep the rules the same throughout all of the series’, I sit in some of the meetings when they talk about this stuff, and we try to keep it all the same instead of having some with brake ducts, some with drag ducts. You end up with more parts and pieces and it just costs the teams more money and you have different development cycles because you have two different aero packages in a way. If we aren’t using the brake like we kind of thought we would, then we might as well take that out and keep that the same. I think it is a good move by NASCAR to keep it simple. It probably saves the teams a couple bucks. Not a whole bunch, but a couple. Directionally it is the right way.”
A LOT OF DRIVERS COMPLAINED ABOUT NOT BEING ABLE TO PASS LAST WEEK BUT YOU WERE ABLE TO COME FROM THE BACK OF THE PACK TO THE FRONT AGAIN. WHAT DO YOU THINK THE DIFFERNCE WAS FOR THE 22 COMPARED TO GUYS THAT GOT MIRED IN TRAFFIC? “It was really an execution day. We got back to sixth or seventh but in all honesty that is as good as we were. I can’t say that, as far as the cars around us, that we were much better than that. Perfect day, maybe we finish fourth. But we had a pretty well executed day and we finished sixth or seventh. We made that pit call to go get a stage win, which I thought was worth it, then we paid the penalty by going back to 24th or so. It took us awhile to get back to sixth or seventh. We needed cautions, good restarts and good pit stops to get back up there. It was hard to move your way up there but we slowly picked off one here, a couple there and the next thing you know you are in a decent spot. It was challenging but I feel like for us we did our jobs as far as executing throughout the day and that is what picked up positions as the day went.”
WOULD YOU WRECK A TEAMMATE TO WIN THE ALL-STAR RACE? “No, you can’t do that. You can’t just go out and wreck anyone because you are going to pay the price. Believe me, I know. I think it is probably not a wise decision. I have always said, moving someone is one thing, wrecking someone is something different. That is my opinion on it. I think you have to race that race the same way you would any other race because it is the same competitors. Yeah, we are more aggressive, but it doesn’t mean you are going to go out there and just dump people.”
CHASE (ELLIOTT) SAID THAT BECAUSE OF THE CONDITIONS TOMORROW NIGHT HE FEELS THE FIELD WILL BE CLOSER TOGETHER. IF SO, DOES THAT GIVE OPPORTUNITY FOR THE DRAFTING EFFECT DESIGNED TO OVERTAKE THAT DIRTY AIR BALANCE AND SHIFT IT MORE IN THE DIRECTION OF YOU BEING ABLE TO USE THE DRAFT TO PASS PEOPLE? “Yep, you are right on it. That is exactly how it is going to be. Cooler temperatures will bring the pack closer. The cars today in practice it was surprising how much we were lifting actually in that draft. The cars were really sliding all over the place in dirty air and the temperature is a little warmer right now with the sun out. When you get to a night race it will bring the pack closer together. It used to be the other way around. When we were lifting a lot we wanted the track temperature to be hot and to rubber up a lot so that it would get really wide and we could move around and do all this stuff. Now you want it cooler so that you are more wide open and that is what brings the cars closer.”
SINCE YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT HOW IT IS COOLER AND MORE LIKE PROBABLY THE RACES IN THE FALL, CAN YOU EVEN APPLY ANYTHING FROM THIS RACE TO THE SUMMER RACES BECAUSE OF THE TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCES? “I think this race has some similarities to what Charlotte may be like. Even though it is cooler we are still lifting and you will lift when we go to Charlotte. We have lifted at every race track with this 550 package. Just about everywhere. Even California we were lifting a fair amount. Texas you lifted in one corner at least. You are going to have that piece of it. Kentucky is a place you are going to lift a lot into three. You know that everyone is going to be bringing some downforce to that race track. This track here, I was thinking that you are going to have kind of a mixed back. Kind of like Michigan. You may have some guys that think handling is important and some guys think getting the drag out is important. Maybe in the middle is where you want to be. Maybe one way or the other is where you want to be. I think those are the things we will learn here this week. How far one way or the other do you want to be when you come to a race track like Kansas compared to a place like Texas or California, Vegas, Kentucky, you name it. I think each track you are going to kind of want something different depending how much you are in the gas.”
THERE HAS BEEN TALK THIS WEEK ABOUT WHETHER NASCAR IS LISTENING TO THE FEEDBACK THEY GET FROM DRIVERS. DO YOU FEEL THEY ARE LISTENING? DO YOU THINK THEY TAKE INPUT BUT CHOOSE DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS? AS A CHAMPION, DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE ANY BIGGER OF A VOICE WITH NASCAR? “Yes, I do feel like they listen to us as drivers. But I also realize that we are not the only players in this game. There is plenty of other members that have a vested interest in what we do. You think of our fans for one. It has to be a good race. It has to look good and be good passing. Our TV partners will weigh in on that. Media members weigh in on that. The team owners weigh in on that. And yes, the drivers will weigh in on that. Do I feel like the drivers have a great view of what is happening? Yeah, probably better than anyone because you can do all the CFD studies and show me all these squiggly lines but there is nothing like real life when you get out there and actually feel it. There are only 40 people that really know what it feels like out there. I feel like the drivers have a good opinion of what is going on but we also have to realize and almost take a step back and look at it from a global view of what is best for our sport. There are a lot of good metrics going on and you guys have all seen them as far as the ratings and approvals and all that stuff. It is all trending the right way. Dover was a little different but it wasn’t awful. There was still good racing back and forth, it was just different. To answer that, I do feel like our voice is heard. I just feel like it is not everything and it probably shouldn’t be everything because there are other groups that need to be heard as well.”
