Joey Logano Watkins Glen Media Availability

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Go Bowling at The Glen NASCAR Media Availability| Watkins Glen International
Friday, September 13, 2024

Joey Logano, driver of the number 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Team Penske, met with media members Friday afternoon at Watkins Glen International. Logano spoke about his win last week at Atlanta and what that means for his mindset heading into this weekend’s race, among other things.

DID YOU SLEEP EASY THIS WEEK?
“Yes, I slept better than I was going to, for sure. I probably was a little bit more comfortable than most. You know, it gave us the advantage to start looking towards Kansas already, which is nice to do. But we still were looking at some Watkins stuff. I mean, there’s still playoff points to grab in the next two weeks. So we’ll hit the next two as hard as we can and try to get stage wins and race wins. It’s still pretty valuable, right? I mean, just like any regular season race, it’s just as valuable as it was then.”

THE EXTENDED PRACTICE TOMORROW, WILL THAT BE BENEFICIAL FOR YOU AND THE TEAM THIS WEEKEND?
“It is. It’s just as beneficial for the rest of the teams out there, though. So you don’t gain an advantage but I think these days, any time you can make more laps it’s just kind of nice. As a racecar driver these days you don’t get to make many laps anymore so it will be a little bit of fun and this isn’t the most technical road course that we have, just because there’s not a whole bunch of corners really compared to some of the others. I think you’re still making some laps and having the opportunity to work on your car a little bit. You still don’t get to change much to your car like the old days, but you still have the opportunity to at least think about things in between those 20-minute practices.”

DO YOU HOPE THE XFINITY RACE GIVES YOU A BETTER IDEA OF THE CHANGES TO THE TRACK AND OR ARE YOU WORRIED THAT THE CARS ARE SO DIFFERENT THAT WHAT YOU CAN DO IN THE XFINITY CAR YOU’RE NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO DO IN THE CUP CAR?
“My thoughts were to try to get more seat time because the track changed. The questions that everyone has is what are the rumble strips like off of one in the carousel and is that still going to be in play or not. So at least I’ll know a little bit before everybody else. I don’t think we can change anything to the cars or really combat that, but we can at least have a little bit more experience of that piece during the race. The cars are very different from each other, more than ever, but I’d say if an Xfinity car can go over the rumble strips the Next-gen Cup car definitely will with the wider tire so we’ll kind of wait and see how that that looks. One step at a time, and then obviously, the bus stop with the different curbs, but the cars are way different through there so it was kind of harder to say.”

LAST WEEK SHOOK UP THE POINTS AND THEN YOU COME TO A ROAD COURSE WHERE THAT’S TYPICALLY HOW THINGS ARE TOO. WHAT DO YOU PROJECT TO YOURSELF THIS RACE IS GONNA BE LIKE FOR PEOPLE?
“It’s interesting these days, the road courses don’t shuffle up the running order a whole bunch compared to what you see every other track. It seems like it’s the same teams that run good almost everywhere these days, with the exception of a couple, right? There might be two or three that are a little bit different than others, but for the most part, it seems like if you run 10th to 15th, you run 10th to 15th here too. It’s kind of weird how, at least at Watkins Glen, it seems like that. But I think the speed and downforce still matters. If your bodies aren’t great, then they’re not going to be great here either. And you’re going so fast. Any time the points are so close, you go into the first race of any round, things are going to shuffle up because the points are so close. You have a couple guys with issues like they did last week in Atlanta, it’s going to change stuff up quickly. We’ll be saying the same thing when we leave Watkins Glen, like, wow, man, there’s going to be a crazy storyline. And the points battle going into Bristol will definitely be tight. No matter what, it’s going to be tight. There’s just not enough races to create distance.

THE THREE RACES ARE ALL SO DIFFERENT AND SO POTENTIALLY DRAMATIC, ATLANTA FOR WHAT IT IS, AND THEN A ROAD COURSE, AND THEN CERTAINLY BRISTOL. THIS IS A HECK OF A ROUND. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO YOU TO HAVE THAT WIN, CONSIDERING HOW, YOU KNOW, THIS ROUND SETS UP?
“Anything can happen, and we see with next generation now, these days too, you can’t just bank on speed in your car anymore because you’re not that much faster than everybody anymore. When you think about the old car, if your car has top five speed, you can finish 10th pretty easy. Something can go wrong and you can recover. Now if you have 5th to 10th speed, 20th is only like a tenth behind you. It’s really close. So if you have a mistake, if something goes wrong, you never make it up. You finish 20th. So to try to stack in as many wins or top fives as you used to get all the time is a lot more challenging now because the field is just closer. You’re not racing against 10 cars that can win every week. You’re racing against 20-something cars that can win every week. So to stack up those big numbers like we used to, seven, eight wins and half the races being top fives or whatever, it’s not happening anymore. So it keeps the points tighter too. You don’t get that big separation because everyone was up there. So it just keeps everything tighter than ever. So yeah, it’s nice to get the win last week because you just don’t know how it’s going to play out.”

WHEN YOU LOOK BACK AT THE SEASON, IN THE FIRST 12 RACES, EVERYBODY WAS ASKING WHERE THE HELL IS FORD, RIGHT? AND IN THE LAST 15, EIGHT WINS FROM SIX DIFFERENT DRIVERS FROM FOUR DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONS. CLEARLY THE BLUE OVAL HAS SPREAD THE WEALTH, BUT THE FACT THAT YOU GUYS HAVE JUST KIND OF DOMINATED THE SECOND HALF OF THE REGULAR SEASON AND INTO THE PLAYOFFS, HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL?
“Yeah, I feel like we’ve executed good races. Some of the tracks may have fallen into some of our hands where some of our strengths may be. Do I think we’re strong at every track or the best at every track? I can’t say that. I think there’s still a lot of work to be done, but that’s probably just who I am in general. I always look at the things we can be better at but I’ll say the teams have done a good job at maximizing what they got and and learning a lot from the beginning of the year. Ford’s done a good job at trying to make up the deficit that we were at and trying to catch these guys. There are a lot of different factors that go into all of that. A lot. A lot in the sport as well. And it’s how things change around, the cycle, the flow, the momentum, and all those types of things. But I’m glad to see that we seem to be on the right track right now. But there’s still a long ways to go in this season, for sure.”

WAS THERE PANIC AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR?
“Yeah, the panic set in, I think, within the first eight weeks. The panic set in. You know, over the off season, you know, new car and all the numbers look great, but then you get on the racetrack and the numbers don’t translate, there’s a lot of different variables on the reasons why that is and learning that, we got a lot of work to do like this isn’t everything it was cracked up to be. There’s a lot to do here. I think everyone had done a good job at accepting that and going to work to fix it. Everyone has done a good job at moving the needle and getting us closer.”

WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTING WITH A NEW TIRE THIS WEEKEND? GOODYEAR SAID THREE SECONDS OF FALL-OFF OVER A RUN, SO ARE YOU EXPECTING IT TO BE THAT, AND HOW DO YOU THINK THAT WILL AFFECT SHORT PITTING BEFORE THE STAGE BREAKS?
“Yeah, possibly. It’s hard to say what the tire fall-off is going to be. If you look at the tire test here, it was more than three seconds. You look at the wheel force test, it’s about three seconds. When you come here with all the cars and the teams that have adjusted to it, what’s it gonna look like? Is it two seconds? Is it one second? Is it six seconds? Like, it’s kind of hard to say. I would think it’s going to be less than what it was, just going off of experience of what I kind of predict. But yeah, it’s just going to be — which is still a lot more than what we used to have. So I think that’s exciting, and it will adjust the strategy kind of depending on what we see for fall-off tomorrow in practice. It’s too hard to call the race right now and saying that this is gonna be the fastest way to run the race but you know we’ll see. That three seconds of fall-off is kind of back to old Sonoma numbers with three or four seconds of fall-off. That’s great. I think that’s fun. It’ll be exciting to see who’s got the fall off and who doesn’t and comers and goers and the strategy of it. It won’t just be about fuel mileage like it was last year or would have been this year if we didn’t have any falloff so it definitely adds another layer to the race.”

YOUR LAST COUPLE OF FINISHES HERE HAVE BEEN PRETTY SOLID, WHAT’S IT GOING TO TAKE TO CARRY YOUR MOMENTUM INTO A TRACK LIKE WATKINS GLEN NOW WGI IS IN THE PLAYOFFS?
“We’ve been okay here, like you say, I’ve been decent with top tens, but we haven’t won here since I think 2015. So it’s been a while since we’ve been to Victory Lane here. We’d like to to change that. This would be a great weekend to try that. I can be aggressive We talked about it earlier about getting a win last weekend, and how there’s only something to gain there’s nothing to lose so you can be more aggressive behind the wheel with how you just drive the car and not worrying about locking up tires as much or cutting curbs too tight or going for it and making more aggressive passes and more aggressive strategy more aggressive setup. We can do all those things and be a little bit more all or nothing to try to make up that gap for where we’ve been here lately in the seventh the tenth position and try to get us in the first to fifth positions.”

WE’VE ALWAYS HEARD THAT WINNING THE FIRST RACE OF THE THIRD ROUND WAS ALWAYS SUCH AN ADVANTAGE AND YOU’VE EXPERIENCED THAT FOR PHOENIX. HOW DOES WINNING THE FIRST RACE IN A FIRST OR THE SECOND ROUND CORRELATE TO THAT, OR IS PHOENIX MORE VALUABLE JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT WORRIED ABOUT ANY POINTS, WHEREAS YOU KIND OF REFERENCE YOU’VE STILL GOT THE OPPORTUNITY TO SCORE SOME PLAYOFF POINTS THE NEXT COUPLE WEEKS?
“Yeah you kind of answered it there. The second part. It’s an advantage for some of the reasons I said. You can be more aggressive for the race and you have nothing to lose. There is still something to gain, so you still have to prep. When you win the first race in the round of eight, and you’re locked in the Championship Four, the next two races don’t matter at all. You can’t gain an advantage. You can’t do any more. So you don’t even look at anything else. It’s just like you go through the motions. You’re at the racetrack, you run the race, you’re there, you try still, but 80% of your effort is already towards Phoenix. It’s just like, oh, what do we want to do for this race real quick, just to get by. It’s funny how your focus can just be all the way a couple of weeks ahead, which that’s the advantage you earn by winning that. So you have to take advantage of that opportunity. Whereas right now, winning the first race in the first round, like I said last week, it was a long ways to go. It helps some, but it’s not like game-changing by any means, I don’t believe.”

IS THERE LESS OPPORTUNITY TO HELP A TEAMMATE IN THIS ERA BECAUSE, AS YOU MENTIONED, ONE MISTAKE CAN DROP YOU BACK TO 20TH? ONE THING CAN DROP YOU BACK AND AGAIN THERE’S STILL POINTS TO BE RACING FOR.
“I don’t know if it’s changed a whole bunch and it probably depends on each team and how they do things and those type of things and the track. It’s one thing being in Atlanta or Talladega versus being at Watkins Glen. What are you gonna do to help here? What can you do? You still gotta race you still got to try to go out there and win like we talked about. Getting five playoff points would be huge for us. So there’s no reason for us to lay up here. The biggest thing you can do a lot of times is maybe set up stuff and just be an open book and talking about, you know, even drivers, just lines and the things that you do. Blaney and I sit next to each other on the airplane and we were talking about a lot of things today on the way here, just going over how can we be better, both of us, as drivers. I think just having a teammate that you work together with and have those good relationships with, it goes back and forth and ends up being a good ally to have. What you don’t want is a teammate where it’s just one-sided. Where you just give all the time and you don’t ever get anything in return. Well, what happens is eventually you just stop giving because you’re not getting anything back. But I feel like a Team Penske it’s not like that at all. I feel like we do a really good job of working together. We showed that last week how well we all work together?

QUESTION INAUDIBLE
“I don’t know if push is the right word. I think we work together. What we do to push each other is, honestly, lap time on the racetrack. Who’s faster? I mean, there is still competition there. We still want to be the fastest one. But we realized from years ago and honestly I gotta give a lot of credit to Brad (Keselowski) because I think he did a good job at helping start this theory that you would rather finish second to your teammates than beat him and finish 19th. Having that in your head is pretty key. I think that has just kind of continued over the years and when you have a teammate long enough, it goes both ways back and forth enough to where you understand, okay, he’s gonna help me back, too I can trust him and you know, he goes back and forth.”

SO WITH THE WIN LAST WEEK, YOU NOW HAVE SIX MORE VICTORIES IN EVEN YEARS THAN ODD YEARS SINCE 2018. YOU’VE ALSO MADE THE CHAMPIONSHIP FOR EACH EVEN YEAR SINCE 2014. IS THAT SOMETHING YOU’VE NOTICED THE EVEN YEAR SUCCESS AND IS THERE SOMETHING YOU CAN POINT TO SAY OH THAT’S WHY I DO BETTER IN EVEN YEARS THAN ODD?
“I’ve been told that a lot here recently. To be honest with you I don’t know what it is. I don’t know. Even is good though. I don’t know why it ends up being like that. I’d really like to just win a lot every year. It’s really the goal. I promise you I don’t get comfortable and just lay up the next year and then I get mad and go hard again and win and get comfortable and lay up and go hard again. It just happens. I don’t know. If I can fix the odd year thing, I would. I just don’t know what it is. It doesn’t make you look forward to next year too much. We’ll break the trend next year.”

DO YOU START FEELING PRETTY CONFIDENT IN YOUR CHAMPIONSHIP CHANCES WHEN YOU COME OUT AND WIN THE FIRST PLAYOFF RACE? I DON’T KNOW HOW YOU WOULD CHARACTERIZE YOUR SEASON UP TO THAT POINT, BUT HOW DOES THIS CHANGE YOUR VIGOR IN TERMS OF GOING FORWARD WHEN YOU COME RIGHT OUT AND WIN THAT?
“We’ve been here before where we’ve not had the best regular season, and then the playoffs start, and you’re like, where did all that come from? It happens a lot. So I’d say we’ve always felt pretty confident that we can go win the championship on any year no matter how you get into playoffs. You hear a lot of drivers say you just got to stay in it, survive and advance. That’s important to keep in mind because if you can survive long enough — and we talked about how close the field is these days — you have a couple good races and boom you’re in the next round. You have another good race where you win one and next thing you know you’re in a Championship Four and you’ve got a shot to win this whole thing. So it doesn’t take much to be to go from mediocre through the regular season to being a threat to win the championship. It’s the smallest little detail. So to ever think you’re out of it is kind of crazy to think. Even with not having the most playoff points or having the most wins on the season, whatever it may be, you’re never really out of this thing. Until you’re out. Then you’re out. You can quote that. (laughter)”

I WANTED TO FOLLOW UP ON THE STUFF ABOUT HOW MUCH THESE RACES MATTER TO YOU. SOMETIMES SOME DRIVERS SAY, WELL, IF YOU EVENTUALLY GET ELIMINATED, YOU CAN FINISH ANYWHERE FROM FIFTH TO 16TH IN THE POINTS, SO THE POINTS IN THE RACE MATTER BY A SPOT OR TWO POTENTIALLY IN THE STANDINGS. I’M CURIOUS, DOES THAT MATTER? DOES IT MATTER TO YOU WHETHER YOU FINISH NINTH, 10TH, 11TH, OR 12TH IN POINTS?
“That’s the mindset when you get knocked out. Like, the immediate moment when you get knocked out, it’s, okay, how do we finish fifth in points? How do we get to that? But when you’re still in the playoffs, it’s just, how do we win the championship? That’s all that matters. It’s about winning. You don’t remember the years where you finished seventh or eighth in points or 10th or 12th. It just goes away. Now, there’s a financial impact that does matter, but at this point of the season, in the playoffs, it’s really about how do we look at it at the end of the day, saying, positioning the 22 in Victory Lane in Phoenix. That’s really what matters right now.”