THE MODERATOR: Joey, tell us a little bit about this race, the dynamics of Martinsville. The pressure heats up in the final stage. Looking ahead to next week with your team…
JOEY LOGANO: It’s an interesting position to be in when you’re already locked in, but you’re in the mix of it out there. You have the transfer spot that’s essentially you at that moment when Denny was behind me. I’m like, Oh, man, everyone hates me in I’m in the way or if I let him go.
It’s kind of just one of those positions to be in there. Just tried to manage it the best I could. Overall Martinsville, what did you expect there at the end? The last corner, I didn’t expect that piece. I’m not sure anybody did. It was pretty crazy.
Overall we accomplished, the 22 team, what we set out today. We wanted to keep momentum, make sure our pit stops were really good. They were on fire today. We didn’t want to make any enemies and wanted to keep my crew chief, the team together for next week.
All missions were accomplished, even with some adversity with the fire today. All worked out.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. Have you seen a replay of Ross Chastain’s last lap?
JOEY LOGANO: Yes.
Q. Is that the craziest thing you’ve ever seen?
JOEY LOGANO: We all did it as kids. We all did it in the video game. That’s how you made speed in the video game, that’s what you did (smiling).
Something we all thought about at one point. At least I thought about it a lot, but never really had the need to do it. Also kind of thought of how many races I could have won here by doing that.
As spectacular as it was, as much as it worked, the problem is now the box is open, right? Now every Xfinity race, every Truck race, every Cup race, no matter the track, this wall riding is going to be a play. That’s not good. That’s not good.
I mean, it was awesome, it was cool. It happened for the first time. There’s no rule against it. There needs to be a rule against this one because I don’t know if you want the whole field riding the wall coming to the checkered flag.
I don’t know if it’s the safest thing for the driver or the fans when you have a car right up at the wall hauling the mail like that. What if that fence, gate, wasn’t closed all the way? What if it was bent and caught his car? That’s a big risk that Ross was willing to take. God bless him, that’s awesome.
I don’t think we need to do that every week.
Q. What do you think could happen next Sunday?
JOEY LOGANO: That’s why I’m saying we probably need to do something about it before next week. Like I said, the box is open now. It’s going to continue to happen until we do something about it.
Yeah, I mean, Phoenix presents the opportunity for it, too. A little different entry point and all that. But, yeah, when you’re going for a championship, you’re probably going to do it.
You’re leading going into the last corner, you’re going to put it in the wall? Geez. It’s cool, it happened once, we don’t need to make this a thing.
Q. (No microphone.)
JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, I feel great about our chances. Honestly, I don’t really care who else is in. It’s about the 22 team winning a second title. That’s what it’s about.
We just got to do our job and stay focused on us. Like I said, today we did what we needed to do to be prepared. We’ve had three weeks to think about our race car and how we want to play the race out, how we want to run practice.
We’ve had the opportunity to really, really dive deep into Phoenix, so we’ll take that to our advantage and move on.
Q. In terms of the last move, does it make the sport look unprofessional? Is it such a wild thing that the buzz-worthiness is good? Somebody used the word ‘circus’ to describe it.
JOEY LOGANO: Like I said, it doesn’t have to happen every week. We can’t make it a thing.
I mean, hey, the first time it happens, that’s pretty awesome. I mean, if that don’t make SportsCenter’s top 10 plays, I don’t know what does. Race into a championship, that’s crazy.
I haven’t really talked to Ross. I don’t know how he feels about it. You think about getting bounced off the wall like that, your head is bouncing around like crazy. You touch the fence, there’s no suspension between the car and the fence. You know what I mean? It’s really rough if you start riding the wall like that.
Like I said, we need to do something about it. It was awesome. If we did it every week, it wouldn’t be very professional at all. But since this is the first time, hey, more power to him.
Q. What questions would you have for Ross?
JOEY LOGANO: How is your head (laughter)? That’s the first thing I’d ask. How did that feel? I mean, like I said, that’s a rough ride doing that, so…
Kind of looked like that modified right there, if things went a little wrong.
Q. Regarding the fire that you had in the car, they made some changes to the car after Darlington, what happened today? Did the changes fail?
JOEY LOGANO: I can’t honestly answer that question yet. I don’t know the details. I know it’s a ball of rubber that got up in the rocker and caught on fire.
I don’t believe the rest of the car caught on fire. We caught it pretty early. Starting to smoke under caution, I was starting to see that. I was trying to shake the car enough to put it out, get the rubber out of there, whatever. It catches fire.
Golly, it happens in all race cars. When you have a tire like we had today that rubbers on the racetrack, which is a good thing, it marbles up, chunks of rubber get caught up in the car, get a piece up in the header or something like that, it catches on fire.
In the rocker, stuff like that, it’s a little different. I don’t know enough details to comment on it honestly yet. I know there was a piece of rubber on fire. Got it out. Kept going.
What would have happened if I ran 50 laps like that? Is the whole car going to catch on fire? I don’t know. I can’t answer that yet.
Q. Do you think that move by Ross could only really happen at a short track? Do you think the composite body led to the move being more successful than past attempts?
JOEY LOGANO: Nope. It can happen anywhere. We’ve seen it happen at Darlington. It has nothing to do with the composite body. The body actually looks pretty good on the thing after doing that. The car doesn’t look that bad (smiling).
You never need it to run another lap once you commit to do that. You can do that with a steel body, too, because you’re never going to do it again so… Yeah, body had nothing to do with it.
Q. You’re not the only driver saying this needs to be regulated. I assume you need some sort of clarification before Phoenix as to whether this will be legal or not?
JOEY LOGANO: I mean, I think it’s pretty easy: you can’t hit the wall and gain a position. I think that’s a pretty simple way of looking at it. It’s kind of a dumbed-down version. If you hit the wall, you gain a spot, you should be at the tail end of the field.
Q. (No microphone.)
JOEY LOGANO: Maybe something like that. It’s easy to see, you know what I mean? Someone puts it up against the fence, gains a spot, you can’t do that. That should be the rule, in my opinion. I don’t run everything, so just my opinion.
Q. (No microphone.)
JOEY LOGANO: Everywhere, yes. Everywhere, everywhere. One thing brushing a wall, it’s another thing laying against it. I don’t know if that’s right.
Q. The fact that you already punched in, were you a little reserved today?
JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, yeah. Our missions were to make sure that we keep our team together, don’t make any enemies, keep momentum. We did all that, so…
Mission is accomplished on what we were trying to do. If we can win the race, that would have been great. But we found ourselves in the position where we were the spot for Denny if he got in. If he passed me, he’s getting in, if he doesn’t. Last place you want to be in one of these things is be the guy that needs to be knocked out of the way for him to make it. A unique spot.
Interesting way to race here, for sure.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
