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NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES: FORD ECOBOOST 400November 18, 2016Kevin HarvickJoey LoganoHomestead, Florida THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Joey Logano, driver of the No.2 Shell‑Pennzoil Ford for Team Penske. Joey will roll off 13th in Sunday's Ford EcoBoost 400. Walk us through your qualifying today. JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, well, the first round went really well. I thought we were in good shape there. I think we were third or fourth on the board. Car had good speed. The second round we just lost speed, fell off a little bit too hard, fell off harder than most of the field. Came in, cooled down, tried to get a little bit more, make some adjustments and make our balance a little bit better, and just didn't ‑‑ it's hard to go back out there after you've got your tires hot and try to go even faster. We matched our time basically. Just missed our balance in the offset from run one to one two a little bit too much, and put us back there in 13th. You know, we're not that far back. We'll be okay. Like Jimmie said, this is a place you can pass. You've got a wide racetrack. Faster cars are able to get around other cars. I feel comfortable about what our car is going to be. We'll work on it some more tomorrow in the two practices, make sure it's good in race trim and over the long haul and be able to move around the race track like typical Homestead practice and see what it's got. Q. You kind of just alluded to this, but the fact that really the four of you are starting very close together in this race, if you could just speak to that. JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, as I told Jimmie, man, we all suck. I don't know what happened. No, it's interesting that everyone is all starting so close to each other and not towards the front. It's not what you'd expect coming to here. I'm sure none of us are going to stay back there very long when this race starts. We're all going to have to move up forward and possibly have to win this race. It's come down to that the last few years, and I would expect the same once again. Q. Why does 13th suck? JOEY LOGANO: Because it's not first. What else do you want me to tell you? Q. It's not horrible. JOEY LOGANO: Yeah. We shoot for No.1. That's what we shoot for. You know, we all want to be faster than that I'm sure. I'm sure not just the 22 team, everyone wants to be quicker than that when you come here, but the good side is that we're all around each other, so the penalty of starting back there isn't too severe because everyone is in the same boat. Q. Kevin, how do you feel about playing the role of the spoiler this weekend? It's a little different for you. KEVIN HARVICK: Well, I think for us it's really the same as it has been. You know, you prepare and do all the same things. We've done everything the same. Obviously there's not as much pressure coming into the weekend as there normally would be, and a lot less to do, so that's a good thing. So yeah, it would be nice to win a race and close the season out. Just a lot of reasons, Tony's last race, last race with Chevrolet. So yeah, came here to try to win, same as everybody else. No participation trophies. Q. I know you're saying we're just here to win and all that stuff, but was there any momentary even just a little happy twinge of, wow, I was able to upstage those guys, or is it seriously just we got on pole, we're here to do what we need to do? KEVIN HARVICK: I think when you look at the group of guys we race against every week, I think everybody could look around and say, I've been here and done that and beat this guy and beat that guy and they beat us. It's like I said on pit road, this is a highly competitive sport, and it's hard to perform well and win races and win poles. You watch last week and how much changed in the last little bit of that race, we have nothing to hang our heads about. This is competition, and that's what we show up for, and sometimes the defeats are not as fun to experience, but just as much needed in order to push your team and your people and understand how hard it is. I think sometimes losing definitely makes you better, and that's what I love about competition. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, and the group of guys that you race against, those are the guys that keep it interesting and keep it fun showing back up to the racetrack because you can't beat them every week, and it's just impossible. Q. As somebody who has performed in a Chase format, what advice would you give the other four about their approach for Sunday's race? KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, well, you know, the hardest thing is not making yourself do something different. I think as you look at it, that's easy to talk about and easy to say, but in the end it's different because there is so much on the line and there's so many more questions to answer and things going on that you have to have a plan how to manage your time, manage the emotions and try to not put yourself in a position where you get fans or questions or people that are asking you things and you try to keep the frustration as little as possible because there's just‑‑ when you're that tense and then there's that much going on, there's a lot of things that can trigger those emotions. You've just got to try to have a good plan and do what you do in the race car and on the racetrack. But really everything else is the hardest part to manage in my opinion. Q. Kevin, you start on pole, Tony Stewart's last race, as well as your last race with Chevrolet. Just your emotions on that. KEVIN HARVICK: Yeah, for Smoke, that's the biggest reason that I came to SHR was to race with Tony, so we've kind of had that off‑and‑on in some unique circumstances over the past three years, so that's not been exactly what you thought it would be just because he hasn't been in a car the whole time. But in the end, he's meant a lot to this sport. He's meant a lot to auto racing in general, and I think to not see him on the racetrack‑‑ I'm still not 100 percent convinced that it's the absolute right thing for him to do, but in his heart, I think he feels like he wants to go do other things, but I don't know what else he'll do. I know he's going to go race somewhere else and do something else, but at some point he'll look at it and say‑‑ you're going to have to miss all the things and the people that you've been doing on a week‑to‑week basis, I think, if that's all that‑‑ a lot of what you have going on in your life. But I know it's reality and I know what it is, and I know he's got a lot of plans and he seems to be content with it and ready to move on, so I need to move on from it and get over it and enjoy the last weekend and then take him in as the owner at the racetrack. We had a little glimpse of that for the first 11 weeks, and he was a lot of fun and brought a lot of input to the race team, so I'm looking forward to that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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