Ford Performance NSCS Notes and Quotes
Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400 – Pocono Raceway
Friday, June 5, 2015
Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Fusion, has a season-opening win in the Daytona 500 to his credit this year, along with a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Logano visited the infield media center at Pocono Raceway before today’s qualifying session to talk about a variety of topics.
JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion – YOU ARE THE LAST NON-HENDRICK DRIVER TO WIN A CUP RACE AT POCONO. WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO BEAT THEM THIS WEEKEND? “I didn’t even know that. Apparently, a lot. This is one of those race tracks where aero and horsepower come into play a lot and we’ve seen Hendrick be very good in those departments – not that Penske isn’t — I feel like we’ve had some fast race cars here in the past. I think we finished third here in the fall. Brad almost won in the spring, so we’ve been closer in the past, just apparently those guys are a tick faster and they’ve had the right strategy. There’s a lot that goes into winning at Pocono. I was re-watching the race on the way up here and it’s actually a pretty entertaining race to watch because the strategy just changes so much and as you re-watch it, I knew what was gonna happen. I knew Junior was gonna win the race, but I was watching just kind of how it all played out and how it all worked out was pretty interesting, so strategy is key here. It’s a big deal. Making sure we have the right one, which is always subject to change throughout the race, and making sure you can pass cars when you can and try to make that strategy work also, so you’ve got to have a fast car to do that. A lot of things go into winning this one.”
YOU HAVE FOUR TOP-10 FINISHES IN YOUR LAST SIX RACES AT POCONO. WHAT HAS GONE RIGHT FOR YOU HERE? “I think it’s always kind of been a good race track for me before they repaved it, but I think all of those races have come from the repaved race track here. We’ve just had a fast race car. Restarts are a big deal here, being able to make the most out of it. We’ve seen the restarts here obviously be crazy down into turn one and into the tunnel. That first lap or two and the way the draft works and how long the straightaways are and how wide the straightaways are just always gets crazy. Having a good car there is important and, like I said, things have kind of worked out decent for us, but top 10s aren’t really what we’re shooting for at this point of the season. We really want some wins.”
HAVE DRIVERS NOT ON THE NEW COUNCIL TALKED TO YOU ABOUT WHAT WAS SAID? “We’ve all been kind of focused in on what we’re doing to make sure we’re fast on the race track, I know I am at least, and we never see each other during the week most of the time besides your teammates because most of the time you see guys at the shop, but that’s kind of it. There’s a constant dialogue between the drivers that see each other and when we’re at the race track and stuff like that, but that’s about the extent of that.”
HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN SHARKNADO? “Jeremy, my PR guy, asked me if I wanted to be in this Sharknado thing and I’d never even heard of it and I’m like, ‘OK.’ I just kind of went along with it and as I learned more about what it’s about it became funnier to me, so we filmed it when we were in California, outside the XFINITY garage, a little bit down towards the end there, and I got one line – my big line – so I’m going to Hollywood. I actually saw our part – the whole NASCAR part – and it’s pretty funny. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be funny, but it’s really funny to me.”
WHAT’S YOUR LINE? “’That.’ It’s one word, actually. It’s just ‘that’. That’s my line. I mean, I freaking nailed it. I did one hell of a job. (laughter)
DO YOU LIVE? “I don’t know actually if I live. I didn’t see anything past that part. I saw like a minute and a half clip, and I don’t know. It looks like I’m about to die, but I’m not really sure.”
DID YOU AND BRAD DO IT TOGETHER? “Yeah. Brad’s line is better than mine.”
ARE THERE CERTAIN TRACKS WHERE AERO PUSH IS A BIGGER ISSUE THAN OTHERS AND IF THEY TOLD YOU TO FIX AERO PUSH HOW WOULD YOU DO IT? “That’s a very complicated question. To answer your first part, yes, there are tracks better or easier than others when it comes to just aero, being behind cars, not necessarily a push or just losing overall grip behind another car. The race tracks that are wider give you a little bit more room, but it’s something that’s very challenging. How to fix that? That’s the million dollar question. I don’t know. We all have our ideas on what we think would be the answer, but you don’t know until you try it, and you’re put in situations. We’ve tried a lot of different areas and things to do to try to fix it. A lot of it is because we’ve learned the power of having a great platform in our car and relying on air so much with these race cars that you can’t unlearn that. We’ve found where the speed is – all these teams have – and how to make their cars faster is on the aero side more than the mechanical side. You need both, but you know what I mean. Once you’ve learned that, you can’t unlearn it. It is what it is and we’ll always rely on air, but are there ways we can lessen that? I’m sure there is, it’s just finding the right way to do it. There are a million different ways to mix it all up and say, ‘OK, this is the best package or this is the best package,’ but it’s a little bit of trial and error. Talking with the drivers like they are, I think, is a great way. I think talking with the owners and the teams and the engineers, the more we can all communicate and talk about it we can put all our ideas together and have something.”
CAN YOU RECAP THE TIME YOU RACED HEAD-TO-HEAD WITH MARK MARTIN TO WIN HERE IN 2012? “That was cool. That, to me, kind of felt like my first Cup win, so this place is always gonna be kind of special for me. Actually, when I sat up here I was thinking about when we won here and how special it was when I sat here and was able to talk to you guys about that. It’s just that you’re racing against Mark Martin, obviously a legend in our sport. He was my favorite driver growing up. One of the main reasons why I was even here was because of Mark Martin, and you’re racing him for a win. Obviously, that was in a challenging time in my career, not knowing where I was gonna race next year or if I was gonna have a ride, and what was I gonna do. Getting that win was one of the most special wins of my life. It’s hard to kind of put it in words on what it was like I just know I was shaking the last four laps inside the car, and I’ve never had that feeling before of have had it since that day. Winning here is a special one for us.”
HOW MUCH PRESSURE HAVE YOU PUT ON YOURSELF TO SUCCEED THIS YEAR AFTER WINNING THE DAYTONA 500? “Not anymore than what we would have if we didn’t win the Daytona 500. We want to succeed no matter what, and I feel like we’ve had some good runs for sure. We’ve had a lot of top fives and top 10s this season. We want more than one win, that’s for sure and we need to find a little bit more speed to get to that point. Does it add pressure to us to want to finish off the year great? We wanted to finish off great anyway, so we’re gonna put that pressure on ourselves no matter what, as we should.”
THE TUNNEL TURN IS ROUGH. HOW ROUSH? “I’ve still got a headache (laughing). Apparently, winter was really harsh here or something. It’s unbelievable. I figure Travis Pastrana would be really good here with the jump in the tunnel turn. It’s brutal. It’s a big, big jump. The front tires are completely off the race track, so obviously that’s hard inside the race car to figure out how to get over that for the driver, but for the team you try to fix that you hurt the rest of the race track. You give up two corners for one corner? That doesn’t really make sense, but you want to try to compromise and get that corner as good as you can, and Pocono is always a compromise because there are three different corners, but it’s a little bit more different than normal because of the jump. Everyone might be calling it bumps, but I think it’s big enough to call it a jump. It’s tough. When we get in a race situation, the guy on the inside there he’s not gonna be able to hold the bottom very well, I don’t think. It depends if we get better tomorrow. Obviously, we’re all gonna try more things tomorrow in practice and try to make it better, but it may promote some passing – possibly. It’s not gonna promote much two-wide racing through the tunnel, but it might off the corner because cars can make a mistake and you go up the race track, lose momentum, and a car can pass someone that way. But two–wide through there, there’s a good chance someone loses the nose and gets up into somebody. It’s already been a tricky place to run two-wide through that corner as it is, and it’s always kind of hairy through it. It makes it exciting to watch for sure, but it’s definitely gonna be harder for cars to hold the bottom, especially on new tires with low air-pressure you’re on the splitter more, so all of that is kind of going against you on a restart.”
JEFF GORDON SAID IT MIGHT MAKE THE RACE MORE INTERESTING, BUT IS IT SOMETHING YOU CAN ADAPT TO? “It gives us something to talk about, that’s for sure, and it will be plenty interesting. I agree with Jeff on that. Will it help or hurt the racing? It’s gonna make it different, but it’s really bad. I mean, it’s to the point that I’m nervous my car won’t make it through the race because our cars aren’t built to jump things. They’re built to be on the ground, and that’s kind of where they work best. When your front tires come off the ground and they land and they’re moving, that just stresses all these parts and pieces out. We have everything built to the max of what our cars typically do, and this is a little bit more. So will cars break? Possibly. I guess we don’t know, but it’s something I have a concern of, and I know Brad has a concern about. We talked about it together. It’s something that I would assume they have to fix before the Indy Cars get here because I don’t think their cars can go over that the way it is now. We’ll just have to find a way to deal with it throughout the weekend and I would assume they’re gonna grind it or do something to try to fix that, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
