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NASCAR CUP SERIES: BANK OF AMERICA ROVAL 400October 11, 2020Joey LoganoConcord, North Carolina THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Joey Logano, driver of the No.22 Shell‑Pennzoil Auto Trader Ford, who finished second in today's race. We'll go straight to questions for you, Joey. Q. Obviously you came in here really not knowing what the track was going to be like because of the weather conditions. Is it a sort of sigh of relief for you now? JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, I mean, I can't tell you. I typically don't get nervous before races, but this one had me pretty nervous because, I said earlier before the race, I've never felt less prepared for the battle ahead. Typically a guy over‑prepares, tries to make sure he see everything coming at me before it happens. But this one I couldn't do it. I just didn't know what it was going to be. I asked as many questions to Austin Cindric, watched the Xfinity race yesterday from a suite. I did everything I felt like I could do and I still didn't feel comfortable, especially being on the cut line of what was going to happen. Just a great day. Executed the race as good as we could, with getting stage points, a few good restarts, really good pit stops kept us in the game, got us to second. I hate to say we'll take second and be happy with second, but no one was going to beat that 9 car today, I can tell you that much. Geez, he's smoking around here. Their road course stuff with Chase and Alan and those guys are light‑years ahead of us. Not even close. They're definitely booking. We got to figure out what that is. Probably their teammates are wondering the same thing. We just got to keep our heads down, focus on ourselves and keep making gains. We made some gains from Daytona, so we have to keep working at it. Hard to do without practice, but we're making progress. Q. Looking at the next round of the Playoffs, what track are you most confident going to in advancing to the Final 4? JOEY LOGANO: All of them. I feel great, ready to go. This is exactly what I needed to get through here and get a little momentum built up. So feel good about all of them. Q. Do you think if we had practice and qualifying maybe in the rain or it was a dry track, do you think that would have any effect on maybe being a little more prepared or something? JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, would have helped for sure. The first couple laps we roll out there on those tires, the track was fairly wet. It wasn't soaked like it was yesterday for the Xfinity guys. It was wet. We're all trying to figure out what the grip level is under caution obviously as we get going. Any time there's uncertainty like that, it presents an opportunity to pass a lot of cars, but it also presents an opportunity to wad it up early in the race, which is exactly the wrong thing to do. I felt fairly comfortable what I was able to do with the rain tires on. The question was, when do we put the dries on. You didn't want to be too late to the game there, how that works. Especially for us, we didn't want to be super aggressive because we were racing for stage points and needed every point possible in case one of those cars below the cut line would win. Q. Overall how do you think today went with all the circumstances? How do you think NASCAR did with racing in the rain? JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, I thought it went way better than I thought it would. I think yesterday for the Xfinity guys, that was an extreme case. That was probably too much rain. But today the only negative I saw of anything today is that they got to fix the running water. It never stopped running across the racetrack. If they can figure out a way to drain that better through three and four and a little bit down the backstretch into the rear chicane, you can fix that and we're good. I don't know how easy that is to fix. I'm not a construction guy. If they can fix that, good to go. Q. You said you watched yesterday's race in a suite. After doing that and not having near as much rain today as yesterday, did you find yourself hoping we had a little more rain today to shake things up a little bit? JOEY LOGANO: Nope (smiling). I felt like in the rain we were pretty good. We were able to pass a few cars. I mean, everyone is just going to figure it out as we keep going. In our position, maybe if I had a 50‑point cushion I would say rain would be a lot of fun. Coming in here only 21 points above the cut line, in eighth place, I'll take whatever normal I can get and try to work with that. Q. When you were out there trailing Kyle Busch when he was leading, did you know how close things were with Alex Bowman? Did you see your strategy having to change or your approach to the end of the race? JOEY LOGANO: I was obviously a little concerned as the 18 was pretty quick. But obviously they went for it with the strategy call of leaving old tires on there. They had all their teammates to try to do the same thing to build a cushion. Smart move, I can't blame them for that. We were able to get by him and put a little bit more distance between us and the 88. Felt more comfortable obviously. The worst‑case scenario is the 18 won and we'd be racing the 88. It was kind of in that position for a minute, a little nerve‑wracking, but cautions fell right and other things went the right way. Obviously a great strategy and great execution from Paul's side as well. Q. Seems like you and your team are starting to peak at the right time after somewhat of a slow start. How critical has it been for you and Paul to start nailing these great finishes? How do you feel about your chances in the Round of 8 particularly as we head to tracks that you're pretty strong at? JOEY LOGANO: I feel great. We've had good speed. I look at Vegas, if we didn't get the damage, get trapped down a lap there for a minute, we were really good there, capable of winning. I look at Martinsville as one of our best races. Texas wasn't bad for us either. I feel great about where we're at. I told my wife before we left, I just got to get through today. I feel like we got a good shot at getting to the Championship 4. This is such an unknown. This is what had my stomach in knots. Like I said, I'm glad to get through it. I feel really good about our chances. Q. Do you feel like you're and underdog with the year kind of being the Harvick & Hamlin Show or are you saving your best stuff for the last part of the year? JOEY LOGANO: Right where I want to be. Q. If I'm trying to evaluate who is going to be good in the next round, do I look back to Texas and Kansas from weeks ago or more to maybe Vegas, the last mile‑and‑a‑half? JOEY LOGANO: Both maybe. Like I said, without practice it's hard to improve a whole bunch on your car. But you have something to go back on to the last time we were at Kansas and Texas and Martinsville. I kind of look at those and say, We're going to tune from where we were. I thought Kansas we were pretty good. We had a flat tire, ended up destroying our car there. But we were close. I feel pretty good about our 550 stuff now. If you asked me that 10 or 12 weeks ago, I'd say we were way off on 550s. Now I feel like we're in the ballpark and competitive. It just took a little bit for Paul and I to understand what makes the car tick, right? What makes it tick with me? Without practice, that's really hard to do. It's something I'm proud of, coming here to the Roval for the first time together and having a solid run. I feel like every time we come back for the second time, we should get better. We have been getting better. That gives me confidence for the next few weeks. Q. You made mention about Chase Elliott and how fast his car was from what you could see out of your windshield. Is there anything anybody can do to catch him with all the road courses that are going to show up on next year's schedule? JOEY LOGANO: We better find a way. Like I said, it's not even close. Whatever they're doing... I got a good view of it for a while behind him, some things I saw. Boy oh boy, I saw cars do the same thing and not go as fast. He's light‑years ahead of everyone, like I said. Like I said, his teammates aren't even close. It's crazy to think about whatever it is. Seems like long runs is definitely his strength. But, hey, we're going to have to because plenty of road courses next year. We're going to have to figure something out because right now he can kind of cruise around. He got out there, managed his gap to me about 20 car lengths ahead of me. I knew that was happening. The harder I pushed, he'd go a little bit faster. Eventually it was really easy for him to pull away the last five laps. That just goes to show how good they are right now. I'm not trying to take anything away from them. They deserve all the credit. They are the best at road course racing right now by a lot. We got to work that out. THE MODERATOR: Thanks for joining us. Good luck next week at Kansas. JOEY LOGANO: Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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