Photo Credit: Noel Lanier
Ford Performance NSCS Notes & Quotes:
NSCS AAA Texas 500 – Texas Motor Speedway
Friday November 16, 2015
Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 AAA Insurance Ford Fusion, has had an eventful Chase to date. Looking for a victory at Texas to clinch his way into the championship round at Ford Championship Weekend in Homestead, Logano met with media members ahead of practice at Texas Motor Speedway Friday morning.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 AAA Insurance Ford Fusion – TALK ABOUT YOUR PAST SUCCESS HERE AT TEXAS AND TRYING TO CAPITALIZE ON THAT THIS WEEKEND. “Yeah, we are excited about being here in Texas. This has been a great race track for us. We all know 1.5 mile tracks have been a Team Penske strong suit over the last couple of years. Our team is fired up and ready to go and ready to get on the race track. We know what we have to do. We have to go out there and win. The nice part about it is we know we can do it. We have done it a lot here recently and this is a good track for us. We are excited to get out there and start practice, get qualifying done and hopefully get a good starting spot and be ready for the race.”
LAST WEEK YOU WERE ASKED IF YOU HAD TRIED TO CONTACT MATT (KENSETH) SINCE THE ACCIDENT TO PREVENT WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK AND YOU SAID, “THEY WON’T LET ME GET TO HIM.’ CAN YOU CLARIFY IF YOU TRIED TO REACH OUT TO HIM AND HOW YOU WERE REBUFFED? “I think that was taken in a different way. I thought the question was if we talked to each other after the crash that had just happened that weekend. But to answer your question about Kansas, to me in my opinion, re-watching the race and what happened I will stay true to what I have been saying. I had a great race going there for the lead and there were some blocks thrown and the third time I kept my nose in there and the way I view it personally is that it was hard racing. I was re-watching the spring race from Texas here and I was racing Harvick and at the end of the race here he was on the inside of me and I took the risk of blocking. I took that risk and I knew the consequences. He moved me out of the way. I said that is what I had coming to me. He kept his nose in there. I knew the chances I was taking. There was nothing I said to him. I didn’t expect a phone call from that. I didn’t expect anything. I felt like in that case I was in the wrong. I put myself in that situation and I got moved up out of the groove. I wouldn’t say Harvick and I are the best of friends but I didn’t have a problem with what he did. That is the way I feel like racing is. When you make moves like that, you know the risk you take.”
“I didn’t feel so, no. I felt like we were racing. We were both racing hard and both knew the choices that were being made at the end of the race.”
THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF TALK ABOUT MESSAGES BEING SENT. MATT TO YOU, NASCAR TO THE GARAGE AREA. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED SINCE SUNDAY? “What messages we are all trying to receive and what NASCAR has set out there and made their decisions, a lot of that is not up to me on the decisions that were made. I didn’t talk to anyone really after the race. I went on with my own thing and started figuring out how to win at Texas. The message sent obviously is that you can’t do that.”
HE SAYS HE HAS NO REGRETS. “Well, I can’t speak for Matt. What happened has happened. It is in the past at this point. It is in the rear view mirror. The only way we will get in the Chase is if we keep looking out the windshield. To be honest I am not convinced it is a bad thing. Our team is more fired up than ever. I am more focused than ever. I am pumped up about being here at the track today. What happened last week is what happened last week. Is it the way we wanted it to go? No, of course not. Did we get the finish we felt we deserved that day? No, but this team has plenty of confidence coming off three in a row and in position for four. There is plenty of confidence and more drive than there has ever been. I am not convinced this whole thing is a bad thing.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE ANYTHING YOU SAID OR DID THROUGHOUT THIS WHOLE PROCESS AT ALL WAS ARROGANT? DO YOU FEEL YOU MADE ANY QUOTE THAT WAS ARROGANT OR DID ANYTHING ARROGANT? DO YOU FEEL THE PENALTY WAS JUST FOR MATT? “I don’t think I am an arrogant person to be honest. I am being myself. This is one of those situations that you have to be true to your character and true to who you are as a person and remain that faith. If I was arrogant in any way I am sorry but I don’t feel like I was at all. I feel like I was being myself and being a hard racer which I have always been and always will be. I don’t believe that is arrogant in any way. I enjoy coming to the race track and I guess everyone has their way they can judge you or put something on you or label you some certain way but when it all comes down there is only one person that can judge me at the end of the day and knowing that makes me feel fine.”
WAS THE PENALTY JUST? “That isn’t my decision. That is NASCAR who looked at that in the way they needed to and made the decision they felt was right. It doesn’t affect me. I don’t have a horse in that race. Our Chase, we are not out of it by any means. We have plenty of time to get ourselves back in. I feel confident that we can do it and what NASCAR makes of their decision doesn’t involve me. I didn’t call them, I didn’t talk to them and what came out was news to me as well. I don’t have a horse in that race to really make a statement.”
OBVIOUSLY YOU HAVE TALKED TO PEOPLE IN THE PENSKE ORGANIZATION WHAT HAS BEEN THE MESSAGE FROM ROGER OR ANYONE? ANY ADVICE ON GOING FORWARD AND THE BEST WAY TO PUT THIS BEHIND YOU? “I am 25 years old and still have a lot to learn right? When you have Roger Penske and Walt Czarnecki as leaders of your race team you listen to them. They have been through every situation that motorsports can present to them. Taking their advice is very important in a situation like this. For me, their advice was to look out the windshield. We are not out of this thing and I am not blaming anyone for what happened. We are going to move forward. It could be one heck of a story if we win this thing. Like I said, I have more drive than ever. They pretty much just pushed that fact that we need to remember what we need to do. I think to that point you see what happened after the race last week and the way this 22 team handled it. There was no yelling, no arguing, they went to work and fixed our race car and we got back out there. Yes we didn’t gain any points by doing that but we made an amazing statement and I think that is very impressive for a team to do and I feel privileged to be a part of a team like that.”
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE FANS REACTIONS AND THEM CHEERING AND ENJOYING SEEING KENSETH TAKE YOU OUT? ARE YOU SURPRISED YOU HAVEN’T BECOME MORE OF A FAN FAVORITE GIVEN YOUR SUCCESS THE LAST COUPLE YEARS? “Was I surprised to see the fans reactions? Yes I was. I was disgusted by it. That is not what any racer would expect out of it. But I am going to look at the silver lining on this one. There were more number 22 t-shirts and Joey Logano t-shirts and hats walking around when I was walking out of Martinsville I noticed that. There were more fans rooting for me now than ever before. That is pretty cool. Instead of listening to the critics and fans that may not like me, I am going to look at the silver lining and know that I have more fans than I ever had before and I appreciate every one of them. They are very good people. I feel like they are not the ones throwing things on the race track. I think they are stand up people and I appreciate having them wearing my t-shirt. That is something I want to have my name involved with, with people like that, and I appreciate having a lot of support on my side.”
WILL YOU RACE MATT ANY DIFFERENTLY WHEN HE DOES RETURN? “No, we move forward. Our goal when we get to the race track is to win the race. It is not revenge. It is not taking someone out. There is a trophy. When I walked in here there is a pretty cool trophy with a cool hat on the top and I want that. When we get to Homestead there will be another cool trophy. I don’t know what it looks like but I bet it is pretty cool. We are going to want that. That is the number one goal when this team gets to the race track. When I say this is a test of character that is what I mean by that. This puts us in a situation where it is a true test. When you think about being a champion and being a champion in life, this is a true test of the type of person you are. I look forward to the opportunity.”
DOES HOW SOMEONE RACES YOU ON THE TRACK INFLUENCE HOW YOU WILL RACE THEM GOING FORWARD? “Of course. It always does. You look at the way people have raced you before and determine the way you are going to race them. That is part of getting to the ultimate goal of winning the race. You have to be a student of the sport and study the character of the other drivers and how they do things. That is what any competitor would do at that point. To consume yourself with that is a completely different statement.”
A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO ON YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT YOU POSTED THE SERMON ‘I WILL FIGHT’ CAN YOU ELABORATE WHAT THAT SERMON MEANS TO YOU AND WHY IT WAS POSTED AT THIS TIME? “That is something where I am a member of the Elevation Church in North Carolina and it is something that Pastor Steven Furtick put up and I have been listening to it for quite some time. It is motivational to me. I think some people did not take the time to maybe download and listen to it and they jump to conclusions like normal. That is fine but if you took the time to download it and listen to it, it may be completely different than what you thought it was or what a lot of comments were made about it. It motivates me. I listen to it a lot. I listened to it this morning to fire me up. It helps me as a person and reminds me every day to go out there and fight and do things the right way. Do things in the way that God wants us to do it and it is something that helps me get fired up for every day. I felt like at that point when I was driving down the road and listening to it that maybe there was someone else out there that needed to hear it right now. I don’t know who it is or what people are fighting but like I have said a lot of times in our sport we are on an amazing platform to reach people and help people in amazing ways. I don’t know if it helped someone that day. Maybe someone downloaded it and is struggling with something in their life and listened to it and it helped them. To me, that is what life is about. That is the biggest thing we can do and that is why I posted it.”
IS THERE ANYTHING IN THIS WHOLE PROCESS YOU FEEL YOU COULD HAVE HANDLED DIFFERENTLY OR MAYBE REACHED OUT TO MATT BEFORE YOU GOT TO MARTINSVILLE OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT? “Nope. No. I am confident in the decisions that we have made. I am confident in the decisions I made as a driver and the decisions we made as a team. So no, like I said earlier, that was a racing thing what happened at Kansas and I wouldn’t expect a phone call from someone else if that happened. I thought about it and it is a decision you make and you think about how you handle every situation and that is now the way you want to see a race end in Kansas that day. You want to battle it out all the way to the end. You don’t want to see that happen but when I looked at it, the more I looked at it, it was just a racing thing. It just happened. It was unfortunate but I would understand if it happened to me. Like I have been saying, he was racing for the win and doing what he had to do and knew the chances and risk he was taking I would assume. From my point of view, I would if I was driving the car. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and can view it their own way and I respect that. That is fine. If every one of you guys in here today can think about the way they view the situation in different ways and I respect every one of them. That is the cool part about our world and our life, that we can do that.”
DO YOU THINK THIS PUNISHMENT WILL CHANGE THE WAY GUYS REACT WHEN THEY ARE MAD AT EACH OTHER? “I think it will. I think it will for certain drivers and what you would do in those situations. I can’t speak for everyone in our sport, you know what I mean? I just worry about what I am as a race car driver, what our team is as a race team and I worry about that and how I would handle situations and knowing the consequences of it. Does it chance the way I would handle a situation? Probably not. Does it change the way other people would handle a situation? I can’t answer that. I don’t know. I think we all did learn what NASCAR’s stance is on this and that is something we will all put in our memory bank and know that going into the future.”
