Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Autotrader Ford Mustang, posted the fastest single-lap speed in today’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Happy Hour practice at Bristol Motor Speedway. Logano, who qualified seventh for tomorrow’s scheduled Food City 500, spoke about practice and how the track is changing.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Autotrader Ford Mustang – HOW WAS PRACTICE? “Pretty good, apparently. We’ve got decent speed in our Autotrader Mustang. It seems like it’s got some good short-run speed. That’s where the big number shows up. I haven’t looked at the lap tracker to see where it falls off to, but just being around the cars that I was around it seemed like I can move around and keep decent pace and I think that’s what Bristol is all about these days is being able to have a car that’s versatile to where you can run up top when you have to, run the bottom when you have to and run everywhere in between when you’re in traffic. Those are the cars that usually succeed in the race, so I feel like I have that in my car right now. That being said, everything can change in a matter of seconds here as this XFINITY race rolls off and the top comes in and more rubber lays into the track. That can change some things up pretty quick, but I do feel like I’ve got a good piece right now.”
DOES THE TRACK FEEL MUCH DIFFERENT TO YOU? “The track always is a little different when we come here, just depending on how they apply the track bite, PJ1, grippy stuff. What do you guys call it this week? Call it whatever you want to call it, it’s a little stickier on the bottom still, so that stuff only lasts for a certain period of time before a lot of rubber sticks to it and it kind of gets rough and becomes very challenging to run down there. You’re gonna have a lot of those games tomorrow. I’m sure the bottom is gonna be tough on the start of the race until it gets heat in the PJ1 and activates it and then the bottom is gonna roll for a while until it clumps up and then the top is gonna start rolling and then the top is gonna clump up and then you just have to find a lane that works best for your car. That’s what’s fun about Bristol. I love it. It’s always changing. I’m sure the dirt guys probably love it because the track is always changing.”
HOW DO YOU KEEP ONE GUY FROM CHECKING OUT LIKE MARTINSVILLE? “I hope I check out tomorrow, but I’ve got to get there first. I think you get a good car up front that can control his pace, especially at a place like Martinsville. This is a lot different than Martinsville. At Martinsville if you get lead you get more air cooling your brakes, you can run the pace that you want to and on the long run you’re there and you have everything cooler than the guy that was chasing you the whole time and you’re able to drive away and stay doing that. That’s part of short track racing. If you’re smart about how you’re up front, you can stay up there for a long time if your car is good. Is there an advantage to leading? Of course there is always an advantage leading, no matter where you are, no matter what form of motorsports there’s an advantage to leading. The thing is here though the advantage is probably cut down some because you have traffic within the first 20 laps of a run you’re gonna catch – maybe even sooner than that with some of the back markers. You’re gonna catch them pretty quick, so that clean air advantage that you have will go away and that will keep the second, third, fifth-place cars all closer.”
Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Page 2
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Saturday, April 6, 2019
EVENT: Food City 500 Final Practice
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED — DO YOU THINK THE BOTTOM WILL LAST FOR HALF THE RACE? SHORTER THAN THAT? LONGER THAN THAT? “Weather and long runs. It all kind of depends. If there are cautions, the bottom will last longer. If we fire off with a 50-lap green flag run, I expect that we’d move up pretty quick in that run, which is fine. That’s good. Right there at the end of practice it seemed like the top and the bottom were pretty equal, so for there right now you assume when you get 40 cars out there we’re all in it the same time laying down hot rubber, it’s gonna happen pretty quick to where the preferred is gonna be up top. But that will change as soon as the caution comes out the bottom will be fast again. When you’re setting your car up right now, those are the things we need to think about. We want to be good on a short run because it could come down to that. We’ve seen Bristol come down to a green-white-checker, so you’ve got to be good for that. You’ve got to be good for the 15-lap marker when everyone is kind of rolling the wall and then you’ve got to be good after that where it seems like it really clumps up and you’ve got to have something that’s able to get out of that rubber and run maybe the middle of the race track. Those are the things you’ve got to figure out right now.”
THE BUSCH BROTHERS ARE GOOD HERE. YOU’RE GOOD HERE. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DO AND DO YOU STUDY THAT? “It’s interesting. I think Bristol is one of those race tracks where you can have three or four different styles and be successful. It just depends on what state the track is in. Yesterday, watching qualifying I was looking at what Blaney was doing and I was like, “Oh my gosh, it’s so different than what I’m doing.’ And he was gonna be successful doing it. Obviously, he was really fast yesterday. And Chase is doing something very similar to him, and now as the we’ve gone into a race type track and not qualifying, my style seems to be coming back to me, so I’ve got to work on qualifying here a little bit and how to carry the speed that they carry on Friday. It’s fun because there’s a point in the race that the way Harvick drives is better than everybody’s and then there’s a point where I think my style is better than anybody’s, and you just hope that the point where you’re best is at the end of the race.”
IS IT TOO EARLY IN THE SEASON TO BE TRYING STUFF IN PREPARATION FOR THE PLAYOFFS? “I think we’re always trying new things. You kind of have to because if you don’t, you’re gonna get passed. I think we’re always evolving. Are we doing anything so far out of the box that it’s risky? I don’t believe so. I wouldn’t know, but I don’t believe so. But the risky pieces might come from strategy and things like that. If you’ve got two wins in the bank, finishing fifth or sixth what does that do for you? You might as well go for the win or finish 15th. You might as well go for that move.”
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