Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
All-Star Race Qualifying | Saturday, May 18, 2024
Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse won the pole for tomorrow night’s NASCAR All-Star Race. He stopped in the infield media center and talked about the session, which included a timed pit stop to help determine the winner.
POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – TAKE US THROUGH THIS QUALIFYING PROCEDURE. “It’s probably the most fun qualifying session we have all year, and I think that’s why we didn’t cancel it last night. We just postponed it to today because everyone looks forward to this event, and it really does a great job at showcasing every team member on the team. From setting the dash to make sure all the lights are right and making sure you maximize your speed on pit road, to the car going fast obviously. Executing onto pit road, rolling time. The spotter helping me be able to make sure I hit all the right lights around the corners to maximize that. Obviously, the pit crew doing their part and then back onto the racetrack. It’s a very detail-oriented exchange all the way through that we typically see every weekend when we have green flag stops, but it’s really neat to put it all on the line and do that today. It’s a very special pole, maybe the most special pole I’ve ever had because it’s a great example of everybody and I’m proud of that. It’s a lot of work that goes into the minute-and-a-half out there.”
IT LOOKED LIKE FROM WATCHING THE GHOST CAR THAT YOU MADE UP MOST OF YOUR TIME GETTING ON PIT ROAD WITHOUT SPEEDING. WAS THAT A POINT OF EMPHASIS FOR YOU? “It’s hard to say where exactly it was. Our lap was really good. Our lap was maybe the second or third-best, so we were pretty good there. On the pit road, it seemed of the ones that did not speed we were ahead every time by the time we got to pit road speed. It looked like our corner speed was good. It looked like I was able to roll a little bit of distance just from watching the Fox broadcast probably like everybody else on the SMT data they put up there. You can’t tell the into stall part. They didn’t show that – how hard you get into the stall or how good you left to get back to your pit road lights, but I’d say overall we didn’t have the advantage pit stall. There was one that was better than the other, for sure, and we didn’t have that, so to overcome that makes it even more special.”
BEING OUT FRONT WILL THAT HELP WITH THE TIRE WEAR ON THIS SOFTER TIRE AND DO YOU THINK YOU CAN MAKE IT GO 100 LAPS IF YOU HAVE TO? “I don’t know. Yeah, being out front helps tire wear, no doubt, and you can run your pace and you’re not scrubbing your tires in dirty air and all that type of stuff. I don’t think the strategy is very clear yet. We got 50 minutes of practice I went through a set on and ran as long as they felt comfortable out there, or as much time as they had to run that many laps, and looking at the data afterwards it’s still not super clear what you would do. A lot of it depends on what place you’re running and all that, but it’s not as clear as you may think when it comes to when you’re gonna put the softs on, or the option tire. I don’t know. There’s a lot of question to it.”
HOW LONG DO YOU THINK THEY’LL LAST? “Hopefully, they last longer than the next guy. It’s like outrunning a bear. You’ve just got to go faster than the slowest guy (laughing).”
