JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang – LAST TIME YOU WERE HERE, YOU WON A CHAMPIONSHIP. HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE BACK? “It was great when we were here last time. Obviously some memories of sitting here post-race and enjoying ourselves a lot. It was really special, but like I have said most of this year, that was last year and everything is reset. We have to do it again.”
WHAT CONCERNS DO YOU HAVE WITH THIS AERO PACKAGE? ANY ADVANTAGES OR DISADVANTAGES? “The ultimate goal with changing aero packages is trying to make racing better at the short tracks. I was here as part of the test and I will say that of all the things we tried at the test, this is the best direction. It was something that honestly wasn’t even on the cars to try while we were here. We kept cutting the spoiler off of it and a few of the drivers were like, “why don’t we just take all the Lexan off of it? Let’s try that?” Because it kept going in the right direction as we were doing that. That is kind of how we ended up in this place now. Are you ever going to be able to fix dirty air? No. It is in every form of motorsports now, no matter what. No matter what you are racing, race cars depend on air at some level. But the less that is on the car, the less of a difference it is when you get behind another car. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the right direction. Is it the fix? I don’t know if I would call it the fix but it is definitely the right direction to make racing better on the short tracks. It will make things more fun for the drivers and more entertaining for the fans because of a few things. One, the cars are harder to drive and you are forced to move around the race track more which opens up opportunities to find clean air. That is one part that was a struggle last year, everyone was in the same lane and you couldn’t even move around to find clean air. Now, you saw it in practice yesterday, cars were moving up into the second and third lane in practice. It is pretty clear to me that that will happen in the race. If you are a good car and can run the bottom, you are going to pass some cars. So there are more options for the drivers and more fall-off, which is something we have asked for. There will be more comers and goers possibly as drivers overuse their tires, abuse them, get the balance off from short run to long run, it will make more passing on the racetrack which is good for racing.”
IT SEEMS WHENEVER THERE IS A NEW EXPERIMENT (CLASH, GATEWAY, NEXT GEN) YOU ARE THE GUY TO BEAT. IS IT SOMETHING THAT YOU MENTALLY PREPARE FOR OR IS IT A TESTAMENT TO THE TEAM? “I think it is a lot about the team, to be honest. I think as the team adapts very quickly I think we are able to have a lot of different discussions around things and even during the race we can adapt as we see things. The racing will be different, so as far as on the track, Coleman and myself will be dissecting that as the race goes and where we want to be on restarts and picking lanes. As far as the car setup and stuff, Paul (Wolfe) works on the car and Penske in general. For whatever reason, change has been good for us. I don’t know why that is, but it seems we have been able to adapt fairly quickly on things. This is a big change in the aero package, but it is and it isn’t. The parts and pieces that made a lot of cars really strong last week I expect will keep them really strong this week as well. Whether it is the big spoilers or the small spoilers.”
KYLE BUSCH SAID THAT WITH THIS PACKAGE HE DRIVES IT REALLY ON THE EDGE AND HE HAS TO FIND THAT NEW EDGE. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT ADJUSTMENT, EVEN THOUGH IT ISN’T A LOT DIFFERENT, YOU HAVE TO MAKE IN A BASICALLY EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND FORMAT? “Basically, to me, the driver is more impactful when you take downforce away from the car. When you are forced to use your feet and your hands more. You are off the gas more and have to use the brake more, you have to be smoother with things, I feel like that separates the field a little bit. Not only is that how you make speed but also what direction your car is going to go on the long haul. What tires you use the most, what the fall off looks like, all these things. it is really closer back to what we were when we had the small spoilers on the car. I think that is the right step. I still feel like we need more horsepower but I think that is the race car driver in me that always wants more horsepower. I think the whole field probably wants more power. I think directionally we are going the right way. Taking drag out is essentially adding power. Taking downforce away gets you off the gas and using the brakes more.”
DO YOU HAVE TO ADJUST? “Yeah, you have to adjust everything, How you drive. What you look for. What speed is going to be like, what restarts will look like. It completely resets a lot of things which is fine, it is good.”
WHEN DID YOU START CONSIDERING TRACKHOUSE AS A TEAM YOU WOULD BE COMPETING AGAINST FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “We saw speed in their cars fairly early in the year. Kind of right off the bat. And you were like, ‘Okay, it is a new car, let us all figure it out and see if they are still there.’ Obviously, they are still there. They are still there now and they are hitting every area for the most part when we come to the speedway. Even on pit road they are super fast. They have done a good job at bringing the heat to the racetrack or sure. I would say at this point it is not some one-off thing. That is honestly what I was hoping for (laughter). I would say they are definitely a competitor that is here to stay.”
DID YOU NOTICE ANYTHING IN THE PRACTICE SESSION LAST NIGHT THAT YOU CAN CARRY FROM YOUR WIN HERE IN NOVEMBER? “It is very different. The car is just going to drive worse, no matter how much you work on it, it is not going to drive as good as it did last fall. There is no downforce on the car in comparison. To me, it felt a lot more like the old cars did where you are sliding the back a little more into the corners and fighting a little more the loose in, tight center, loose off. It seems like it has more of that, which makes sense. There is less downforce so the car is going to be crappier to drive. As long as everyone else’s car does that, it is good racing. You don’t wanna be the only one like that but I am pretty sure everyone was hanging on a lot more than what they were.”
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