Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
South Point 400 Media Availability
Saturday, October 11, 2025
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WITH HOW YOU ADVANCED DOES THAT RE-ENERGIZE YOU? “Honestly, I don’t care how we move on. I don’t really care how we win the championship, I just want to win. I don’t care how we get there. I’ve always been that way. I’ve always said it’s about the big trophy at the end of the day. That’s all that matters and how we do it doesn’t matter, whether it’s no wins, five wins, I don’t care. If it’s close at the cut line or easy, it doesn’t matter. It’s all about winning the trophy. My message was basically, ‘Hey, we’ve made it this far, let’s not waste the opportunity.’ We’ve made it to the Round of 8. It’s a great accomplishment, but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t get to the Championship 4. And, again, when you make it to the Championship 4, it doesn’t matter if you don’t win the championship. It doesn’t make a difference, so it’s all about getting there right now. That’s the first step. The next step, and then winning the big trophy.”
AS A DRIVER, WHAT IS FAIR FOR YOU TO KNOW AS FAR AS THE POINT SITUATION OF YOU AND OTHER DRIVERS? “I want to know, obviously, my point situation because it matters, but I also want to know the other point situations because that matters too, not necessarily for manipulating the race, but understanding what risk I’m taking. Is this guy in a must-win situation and he’s gonna clobber me? Or, how hard is this car gonna be to pass in general. What are the motives out there, and there are plenty of times throughout the year where Coleman will tell me, ‘Hey, the top three cars on this restart are all must-wins.’ I’m like, ‘OK.’ I might be eighth at that moment or wherever, but just knowing that gives me like, ‘OK, this could be a pretty crazy restart. This might be a little different than what we’ve watched before the race and how we think it’s gonna go and I’ve got to be ready.’ I want to know those things. That helps me, not in a case of changing the outcome or anything like that, but how can I make the 22 car finish better. That’s my job, so how do I do that? How do I accomplish that, and a lot of times I need to know the full story to effectively do my job in the most efficient way on the racetrack and do things right.”
SOME COULD SAY IT OPENS THE POSSIBILITY OF MANIPULATION. ARE YOU OK WITH NOT GETTING THE FULL STORY TO PROTECT THE INTEGRITY OF THE EVENT? “It’s a slippery slope either way because where is the line? Is just telling somebody where you are in points and what’s going on around you, is that too far? Saying straight-up what to do is probably too far. We can kind of understand that, but just saying what the point situation is, I don’t think that’s too far, in my opinion. At that point, it’s up to the driver to make the best decisions for whatever they’re trying to accomplish, which is usually winning the race. I think just feeding someone data it still leaves it in the driver’s hands to do what they please with it. It’s just giving information. That’s all you’re doing.”
HAVE YOU EXPRESSED THIS OPINION TO NASCAR? “I haven’t talked to them about this in particular, no. I think this is something they need to handle. My opinion, I don’t think, matters too much in this one. Like I said, I think if you’re just saying what’s going on, it’s probably OK, I think. I do think there are some gray lines of, to your point, where is the black and white of this you can do and this you can’t do. I’m sure we could probably tighten some of that up a little bit and just help us understand that.”
THERE WAS TALK OF SHOULD DENNY PASS ROSS OR NOT AND KNOCK YOU OUT. IF A DRIVER WHO KNOWS HE’S ADVANCING TRIES TO KEEP SOMEBODY ELSE OUT IS THAT MANIPULATION OR DOING WHAT IS BEST TO TRY AND GET THE TITLE? “Everyone is gonna have a different opinion on that. I guess in that scenario the 11, Denny, would have to ask himself, ‘What’s gonna give me the best chance to win the championship,’ if that’s your number one goal. If that’s your main goal to do that, what gives me the best chances to win the whole thing. That’s pretty gray, but I don’t really know. It’s pretty tough. That’s why you want to know all the data, but that’s a tough decision and you don’t know what the future is gonna bring. Is one competitor tougher than the other? I don’t know. I don’t know if you want to race against either one of us. Ross has proven to do whatever it takes to get to the next round or to win. He’s done that multiple times. Do you want to race against him? I don’t know. Do you want to race against us? I don’t think so, either. You’re probably in a no win situation, so you might as well just pass him and go and get a better spot.”
OR GET WRECKED. “Or there’s that. Should have waited a little sooner.”
DOES TALLADEGA MATTER IF IT’S IN THIS ROUND OR THE PREVIOUS ROUND? “There’s definitely a difference. There’s only four teams that are gonna make it here, and you put – I hate calling them wild cards because I just hate saying that – but it’s a race where a lot of things can happen. A wreck can take out a few cars more than normal, so it just becomes interesting that way. I don’t know if I’m a huge fan of that where it is in the playoffs, but the rules are the rules and we’re gonna play by them. That’s the whole thing with this whole playoff system. When we start in Daytona, those are the rules. We all know it. We all know the schedule. We all know how everything goes and it’s up to us to figure out how to do it the best. They’re not gonna change because we don’t like it. They are what they are, so let’s go figure out how to win with it.”
WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT THE DEPTH OF THIS ROUND OF DRIVERS WHEN SEVEN OF EIGHT HAVE MULTIPLE CHAMPIONSHIP 4 APPEARANCES? “I wouldn’t say there’s any surprises in the Round of 8 here. I think they’re all capable of winning the championship this year – every one of them. There are none that are like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this guy made it this far. That’s crazy.’ I think you’ve got the best eight teams going for it. It’s gonna be a battle right to the end. I don’t see a clear favorite or clear like this person is gonna kill them all. It seems like it’s gonna be close all the way to the end.”
WHAT ARE THE TANGIBLE BENEFITS OF WINNING THIS RACE? WHAT GOES ON BEHIND THE SCENES THAT CAN’T HAPPEN IF YOU DON’T WIN THIS RACE? “There are multiple levels of it. Obviously, as a driver, personally, you’re focused right onto Phoenix right off the bat, so you’re just 100 percent that race. You go through the motions at the other ones, but it’s really just about Phoenix. The team is in a similar mindset already, so that’s definitely giving you some time advantage there. I think there’s something to do with the stress level as well. You have a moment to take a deep breath and regain your thoughts again. The playoffs are tough. These 10 weeks are hard. It’s a grind on everybody and that gives you a couple weeks where you’re not taking them off because you’re so focused on Phoenix, but instead of worrying about three different things, you’re worrying about one thing. All of us know if you do one thing, you’re gonna be better at it versus doing 10 different things halfway. I think that just narrows your focus in and you’re able to do that, and it’s also tough. The race is in Phoenix and you’ve got think when you’re racing in Martinsville your Phoenix car has got to be ready to go already. The truck has got to get out there pretty soon, so it’s not like you have much time to focus just on that one car because your tongue is hanging out just trying to get there first. That’s the first thing you’ve got to do is get there, so when you put all that together it’s a pretty good-sized advantage to win here this weekend.
IS THERE ANY SORT OF DATA THAT YOU KNOW GIVES YOURSELF THE BEST CHANCE TO DO WELL? “Obviously, if you’re fast, that gives you an advantage. A fast car always helps. Qualifying up front always helps. With that said, it doesn’t mean you can’t win any other way. We’ve proven that, that you can win in a lot of different ways in NASCAR. That’s why it’s a team sport. It’s not just about the car and the driver. It’s about the strategy and the pit stops and everything else that goes along with it. There’s a lot that goes into it, so it’s not always about the fastest car that wins the race.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE HORSEPOWER INCREASE NEXT YEAR? “I think it’s directionally correct. It’s obviously not a huge bump in power. It’s the direction they have to go. There’s a lot of limitations that kept them from going more. There’s a lot of parts to that equation. It’s not that simple to just take the tapered spacer off and open them up and let her eat. It sounds cool. It’s easy to say that here, but when you dig a little deeper downstream there are a lot of things that happen to handle that, so I think directionally it’s the right way. I think the biggest thing that I’ve seen here recently in the last six months is what Goodyear is doing. Goodyear is bringing a tire that falls off and we’re seeing that at a lot of different racetracks now. The horsepower will make the fall off a little bit faster. It will happen quicker. There will be more fall off with more horsepower, so it’s directionally kind of going that way, but what Goodyear is doing is the biggest part of the equation, in my opinion.”
DO YOU SEE OR FEEL A DIFFERENCE AMONG THE ENTIRE TEAM OF BEING THIS FAR? “Yes and no. Some things don’t change much because Penske has a process. That’s how we do things is boom, boom, boom all the time, but you do feel a little bit more, I don’t know, there’s just more on the line. The playoffs are there. You start to feel a little bit more of everything. It’s just that the intensity ratchets up and you feel that. I don’t know that the process changes much, but the intensity is definitely ratcheted up.”
IS IT OK TO HAVE IT AS IT IS NOW WITH ONE RACE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP OR IS THE SPECULATION OF A THREE-RACE CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFF A GOOD THING? “For us as competitors, we’re gonna see what the rules are and we’re gonna try to win with that. Me as a race fan, and it’s just as an opinion as a race fan, so take me out of the driver’s seat and not as a competitor but someone just watching, I love the one-race where it all comes down to one thing. I love the pressure that it puts on every member of the team. I love that they’ve got to come down pit road and they cannot screw up, and I love that every decision that is made with that race car before it leaves the shop has a direct effect on whether you win the championship or not. It’s the Super Bowl moment. You will leave the racetrack knowing who is the champion. I like it. I personally love that. Not everyone has the same opinion and that’s mine, but that’s mine just as a fan watching. As a competitor, it’s stressful as hell. It’s not a comfortable place to be in. No one would really ever know what that feels like unless you’re in the seat, but it’s hard. It’s supposed to be hard. As a competitor I’ve been on both ends of those things. I’ve been on the end of one pit stop keeping us from a win, one final restart from keeping us. I’ve been one run where our car was good and put a set of tires on and it vibrated and we lost the championship because of it. So be it. Those were the rules when we got them and we played by them and you’ve got to try to make the best of that. Personally, I love it. Even as a competitor I do think it’s cool too, but that’s just my opinion and everyone’s got one.”
DO YOU FEEL YOUR COMPETITORS HAVE A SENSE OF, ‘OH, BOY. JOEY GOT IN THIS TIME AROUND? ”You probably have to ask them that. I don’t know. I’ve just got to stay focused on us and stay focused on the 22. That’s the car that matters to me. If they feel that way, great. We’re in their head.”
DOES THIS FEEL SIMILAR TO LAST YEAR GIVEN HOW YOU BARELY GOT IN? “It’s been a fairly similar year up to this point, yes, but what you did last year doesn’t matter. Your past success doesn’t guarantee future success in any way. It proves you know how to do it. It proves you can handle things, but every day is different.”
HOW MUCH DO YOU THRIVE ON BEING A GUY WHERE PEOPLE ARE LIKE, ‘HE’S IN IT AGAIN.’ “I like it. I’d by lying if I said I didn’t like it, but it’s only that way because we’ve been that team. It’s just the way we’ve been able to approach the playoffs and we just have a mentally tough team all the way through. They’re a bunch of resilient, tough people that just keep grinding. That’s how we do it. I wouldn’t say we do it in a flashy way, we just keep grinding away and hopefully things work out. They have in the past because we’ve just stayed tough. I know that’s a simple way of looking at it, but sometimes that’s OK.”
