When Joey Logano entered the Sprint Cup Series, a lot of people expected ‘Sliced Bread’ to be a contender for wins, scoring mutiple ones, and contending for championships. That didn’t happen as planned as Logano first struggled.
Flash forward to April 2014 and perhaps those expectations are starting to come true as Logano sits fourth in points after winning last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.
“ I feel like it has taken me quite a number of years to figure out what I need to do in this sport and how to race against these guys and what I need in the race car here to run well,” Logano commented. “Did I start too soon? Yeah, no doubt I did. But it is an experience that I value a lot right now because I am 22 years old with six years of experience behind me and there is nobody else out here who has that. I am thankful for that opportunity and the tough times I went through to figure it out.
“We have had a lot of fast cars lately and led laps in about every race. We have that win and we have a lot of top-five’s and are sitting fourth in points. Things are going good right now. All the hard work is paying off.”
Logano feels part of it has to do with the confidence that he has now, with the success that he has had on both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series side. The success also leads to carry momentum forward, which he feels is an advantage to have not for himself, but the whole team.
“The team is in great spirits and they have been working really hard over the past few weeks testing a lot and it makes it all worth it when you win a race,” Logano said. “When you win it is like it makes all the work worth it. Winning races is really hard and you need to make sure you enjoy them when you get them. To answer your question it is momentum, confidence and I feel like that is what I am the way I am and I feel like the whole team is that way also.”
With the win in his back pocket and teammate Brad Keselowski having a win, Logano is set for Chase destiny for this season. As a result, he feels his team can focus on the Chase by testing things out some weeks, and saving their test sessions for those 10 tracks.
“Don’t get me wrong, we aren’t trying to not win this weekend and I feel like we will have another good piece here at Darlington and the car will have good speed,” Logano said. “It is cool to see your name on the car with the winner sticker next to it. That is a good sign. It is nice to have both our cars in and we can focus in this weekend and kind of have that distraction of needing to win and all the pressure that comes with that relieved a little bit.”
Logano added that it opens the door for them to try new things and improve things, especially with the new rules this year.
“With this new rules package with the ride height rule there is some low hanging fruit still to grab,” he explained. “We need to figure out what works best with these cars and we will be trying different things like we already do, so that doesn’t change. Really, like I said, at the shop it is about making sure we get our specs right and get some nice new cars ready and get our guns loaded for when the Chase starts.”
