- Joey Logano led 138-of-150 laps in winning tonight’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.
- This marks Logano’s second NCTS victory in 9 career starts after winning at Martinsville in 2015.
- The win is Ford’s third of the season after Zane Smith won at Daytona and COTA.
- Logano has now won a race in all three of NASCAR’s top touring series at Bristol Motor Speedway.
- Bristol Cup – 2 wins (2014 and 2015)
- Bristol Xfinity – 2 wins (2012 and 2015)
- Bristol Truck – 1 win (2023)
JOEY LOGANO, No. 66 Hang Ten Car Wash Ford F-150 – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – WHAT DID YOU FIND BEHIND THE WHEEL? “Just some different things inside the truck I can’t tell you about, but was able to find some good grip on the restarts and fire off there. I’m proud of this great team. Last night, we were on the phone trying to figure out how to get in the race if it rained. It looked like it was gonna rain and we weren’t gonna be in the race, so to get out there with no practice and jump in a truck with a team I’ve never been around before and be able to have such a fast Hang Ten Car Wash F-150 was fun. It was a good time out there.”
WHAT WERE YOU SEARCHING FOR OUT THERE ON THIS TRACK? “I was getting some good info from Blaney on how they were running around the racetrack and things I could do to be better inside the truck. I was definitely able to kind of take it and put it all together and be able to make it all work. I just kind of moved around the track and found what was best for us and figure out how to drive the truck from there.”
WHAT DOES TOMORROW BRING? “Hopefully a win. It’s kind of neat being able to win a Cup race, an Xfinity race, and now a Truck race all at the same track. That’s kind of cool. I don’t think I’ve done that before.”
TY MAJESKI, No. 98 Soda Sense Ford F-150 – “We were just a little bit off all night. William Byron got past me on that last restart. I was actually able to get a pretty good launch with Joey. He almost didn’t clear me into one, but, overall, a really good race for us and a good points day. I’m happy to have a Ford in Victory Lane and hopefully we can build on this momentum at Martinsville.”
YOU’VE BEEN ON A GOOD RUN OF LATE? “We’re hitting on all cylinders right now and we legitimately have fun going to the racetrack together. I think some of that gets lost in NASCAR. It’s a job to everybody, but we’re having fun doing this and the guys are going that extra little bit at the shop to make these race trucks the best that we can make them. We’re having fun doing this. We’re getting in a rhythm doing this and the heart of the season is coming up, so we’re excited for it.”
MATT CRAFTON, No. 88 Great Lakes Flooring/Menards Ford F-150 – “It wasn’t a bad night. We just over adjusted. I was the one that made the calls because we were so free in our heat race and we just over adjusted. We had it tight and then took half of it out from the heat race and I thought we were gonna have to pit again and make some more adjustments. I screwed up because I only took a little nibble at it and I should have taken a little bit more than that if I would have known we weren’t gonna pit the second time, but it was all my fault. I didn’t swing the bat hard enough on the adjustment, but, all in all, a top five which isn’t bad. We just needed long greens. We were just tight enough that if I could start ringing the top like I was doing, I could make hay with it, but all in all not a bad night.”
HAILIE DEEGAN, No. 13 Ford Performance Ford F-150 – “I think we had a lot of speed. I think there were some things I did wrong during the race, honestly, and some things to learn from when we come back. I think I could have made a few different decisions than I did. It wasn’t the best finish, but we got some stage points in one of the stages and wound up finishing 13th. I know a lot of guys in front of us in points had a bad day, so maybe we can be a little closer in points. We’ll see how it stacks up, but that’s kind of our goal right now is gain as many points as possible. I wish we could have done better. I think we had a truck better than we finished, so we’ll see. It’s on to the next one.”
JOEY LOGANO WINNER’S PRESS CONFERENCE
JOEY LOGANO – TAKE US THROUGH THE NIGHT? “It was pretty uneventful. We had a really fast F-150. You’re always kind of concerned going into the race. It’s a team I’ve never driven with before and there’s no practice and you hope the truck drives close and you go out there and go for it. Last night, we were on the phone talking about how we get in the race if it rains out the heat races and is there an opportunity for something like that. Thank goodness it stayed dry enough to get the heat races in and eventually the whole race and be able to have a good showing for Hang Ten Car Washes that jumped on board. It was good and hopefully we can do it again tomorrow.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE HAVING BLANEY AS YOUR SPOTTER? ANY PRE-RACE DEBRIEFS? “No. Coleman is obviously my spotter on Sundays and does a great job. He made a commitment to spot the whole year for the 17 and I wasn’t gonna try to get in the middle of that as much as I wanted to have Coleman spot me. I had him spot me for the heat race because their heat races were different. We were talking and I was like, ‘Who do you think would be good?’ And we were joking around like, ‘Well, how about Ryan Blaney?’ ‘Well, that would be a little different and fun.’ I thought everyone in here would probably get a kick out of it and I thought it would get our truck on TV more often, which was good, so I called him up. This was in Atlanta. I called him up after we got done qualifying there and said, ‘Would you want to do it?’ And he was all in. He’s like, ‘Yeah, absolutely. But I never really spotted before. I’ve only done it a couple times and the last time I did it the guy wrecked.’ So I’m like, ‘Well, we can’t do much worse.’ But he did a good job. Obviously, anytime you put a race car driver up there, which that’s why a lot of the spotters used to be race car drivers. They understand what you’re looking for as far as speed and honestly Ryan knows what he wants to hear on the radio, which I typically want to hear a lot more than him, so I was trying to get him to keep talking more and more, which he was. We had some fun and some good laughs and it all worked out.”
ANY ADVICE HE GAVE THAT YOU USED TO HELP THINGS TONIGHT? “Yeah, line-wise he was able to see some things in three and four that as he leader you don’t get to follow anybody and see. Majeski was entering a little bit higher and being able to turn down across the track and he did a good job explaining that to me and was able to adjust that line and that made the difference a lot. He was starting to close the gap on us speed-wise and that kind of made the difference for us.”
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE BRISTOL CONTINUE TO BE A DIRT RACE IN THE SPRING OR GO BACK TO CONCRETE? AND WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON A DIRT RACE IN CUP IN GENERAL? “I think we’re talking about one of the best racetracks we have on the circuit when it’s concrete, and when it’s dirt. But I think there are a lot of other racetracks that can use an adjustment – not Bristol. Bristol, to me, is the best racetrack we’ve got. Even when it’s concrete. Everyone can talk about how they want one way or the other. Everyone is gonna complain about whatever they want to, but the bottom line is the racing is really entertaining for the race fans here no matter what the surface is. There are some tracks that I’d much rather put dirt on because it puts on a lousy race, so I’ll let you guys figure out which ones those are, but, for me, I have a hard time touching something that was really good in concrete, but, hey, you know what? It’s pretty entertaining this way as well.”
WERE YOU PLANNING ON GETTING THAT MANY TIMES TO LEARN THE NEW CHOOSE AND SEEING THE CHOOSE DRONE? “You know, it works pretty good. Actually, I wouldn’t mind seeing that at every track because a lot of times at almost all the races where the choose box on the racetrack is really, really hard to see, especially as you come up to it. If there’s a car in front of you or if the track is really flat and it’s not banked and you can’t see it – it’s so flat. That really pops out. You know exactly where it is, so that part is good and everyone did a good job picking their lane and making it really obvious of where to be, so it worked out. I thought it was cool. It worked great.”
THORSPORT HAD THREE TRUCKS IN THE TOP FIVE. WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING WITH THOSE GUYS AND WHY WERE THEY SO FAST TONIGHT? “They were fast last year, too. I got my butt kicked by them last year and I was like, ‘Man, I stink,’ but now I realize it wasn’t me. Their trucks were so fast and obviously we saw that again here today. They just have a lot of speed and a lot of drive in it to be able to accelerate off the corners really, really well. Whatever that is, I can’t tell you, but they were fast. You saw that in the heat races and obviously they did a good job making adjustments to their trucks from the last time they were here. A different tire, going to a radial tire with a lot less stagger, without practice. Obviously, it’s a guessing game there. They asked me what I want and I said, ‘Dude, you kicked out butt last year. Just put in whatever you had last year that beat me. I want that.’ So, they fine-tuned it from there and after running a race there are some adjustments I’d like to make with the truck, but, overall, obviously, it was plenty fast to make it happen tonight.”
ANOTHER DIRT RACE WIN FOR YOU. WHEN CAN WE EXPECT YOU TO MAKE A WORLD OF OUTLAWS DEBUT? “I don’t know (laughing). I would like to. Obviously, watching what Larson does and the highlight film from the other night with him and Davenport was awesome. I mean, it looks like so much fun, but, for me, everyone does things differently. Obviously, that works for Larson. For me, I try to focus in on NASCAR the best I can. I show up to the racetrack and I want to know everything that’s going on on my race team and my race car and why we’re doing it, and I study really hard at that stuff, which keeps me out of the race car more than I want to be, but it seems to work on Sunday. Now, Kyle Larson does it a complete opposite way. I don’t know if he knows a whole bunch about what’s going on in his race car, but he’s in the race car every single day and it makes him really, really good. On Sunday, I’d argue the results are comparable, so there’s more than one way to do it.”
WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THE RESTARTS THAT ALLOWED YOU TO HAVE SUCH AN ADVANTAGE? “The outside lane was a big piece of it. I found a couple things inside the truck that was helping me as well, kind of being the control car helps a lot when you can kind of go when you need to go and there’s not much drive at all. It’s funny how Bristol you can throw dirt on it and it can act very similar to what it does with concrete. I don’t get it. Like, you think the track would be completely different, but the way the lanes work on restarts and even as it goes along it’s very similar surprisingly. I don’t know how that happens, but it’s been pretty consistent the last few years.”
TY MAJESKI HAS HAD A STRONG START TO THE SEASON. WHAT DID YOU SEE FROM HIM TONIGHT? “There was never a long run, I don’t believe anything more than 15 or 20 laps without a caution. I’m not sure. Definitely, maybe we did, but I thought with Ty, obviously, he was fast in the heat race starting in the back and finished second to us. He looked to be a little bit better than us in the heat race. He was able to find some speed into three and that’s when I was saying earlier how Blaney relayed that information to me.”
YOU TOLD BLANEY THERE WAS SOME GUY ON THE BACKSTRETCH GIVING YOU THE DOUBLE BIRD. DOES THAT FUEL YOU? “It’s funny, and I want to let Blaney know that’s what it’s like to be me because I don’t think he gets flipped off a lot. I get flipped off a lot. I wanted him to know like, ‘Hey, you’re part of the team here,’ so in a way he was getting flipped off too, in my mind. I don’t think he actually was. I don’t think that individual is smart enough to know that, but, yeah, this guy was committed – very committed to flipping me off. Take the whole race. I mean, the double. One on each side. I don’t think he saw the race. He was just busy hating on me.”
HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED THAT? “Oh, yeah. It happens all the time. I get it all the time. I love the passion, though. I will say that. We have passionate race fans and that’s good. No matter what, like you see it in sports all the time and I think race fans are no different. They love who they love and they hate who they hate. It seems sometimes I’m on the far extremes one way or the other. That’s a good thing. Wasn’t it Earnhardt who said as long as they’re making noise that’s a good thing. Well, at least they’re making noise.”
WHERE IS YOUR MARTINSVILLE CLOCK? “We’re in the process of moving, so now it’s in my office and it hasn’t been wound in a little bit, but it did for years. It sat right in the foyer and my wife was committed to winding that thing. That was like her thing every Sunday night when we got home. She’d wind the clock for the week. It was like a routine of five or six things she wanted to do as soon as we got home. The Martinsville clock winding was one of them, so I’m sure it will be again here soon, but it’s sitting in my office now at Clutch.”
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE WITH THIS EVENT FOR NEXT YEAR? “I don’t know if I’d quite say what they had is better than what they got. I think it’s good both ways. I don’t think we had to do something to make it better is what I’m trying to say. It was great before. I do think that having a dirt race is cool for our sport. To be the most versatile racing series in the world is pretty cool and dirt racing is one part of that that we were able to do, so as a driver you just have to be so versatile through every discipline. I love that challenge, so I wouldn’t want to take a dirt race off the schedule. All I’m saying is Bristol is a great racetrack either way, and I could say we can maybe fit in a different one somewhere else and eliminate a race that may not be as good.”
IS YOUR SECOND TITLE MORE MEANINGFUL THAN THE FIRST ONE BECAUSE OF THE DIVERSITY IN TRACKS LAST YEAR? “The only thing that’s different really is just adding the dirt race. Outside of that, the biggest thing I think from the first one to the second one is just the Next Gen car. It being the first year of the Next Gen kind of made that one pretty special, but it’s hard to beat the first one. The emotions of your first championship are memories I will remember forever. There’s nothing that’s comparable to it. I mean, there are different categories of awesome. When you get married or when you have kids, but in competition it’s like a different category and equally awesome, but in its own separate way.”
HAVE YOU EVER FLIPPED OFF A FAN BACK? “I have not. Mainly I just think it’s funny at this point. I don’t really care that much. It’s kind of like people would get on social media and want to talk and just want to go at it. Whatever. I don’t know. I’ve got more important things to do at the moment, so I don’t really get in the middle of it. But, like I said, I love the passion. I love that they care. That’s why they’re here. It’s because they care and we have to keep people caring and have that passion, but, oh well.”
HOW WAS IT RACING JONATHAN DAVENPORT? “I really wanted to beat him because in the heat race one spot is worth who knows, maybe four or five spots if we beat him. We were close there, but Davenport has been racing forever. We used to race each other in Legends cars 100 years ago it seems like, but a lot. We used to race each other every week and we’ve obviously taken completely different paths. We were talking about it today after the heat races today. I said, ‘Man, it’s kind of cool that it comes full circle.’ And he said, ‘Yeah. We went completely different paths to get here,’ but it’s neat to be racing each other again. I never really thought I’d race him again and obviously he’s a tremendous race car driver, especially in late models and on dirt. It’s no surprise that he picked up on it pretty quickly. Obviously, it’s a lot different than a late model and the rear end is not moving two feet and all that, but he knows what to look for and knows how to do it and he was able to move up top there and find a little bit of speed towards the end of the heat.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CAR FOR TOMORROW? “We were a little bit too tight in the heat race. I couldn’t get it to rotate and I was needing to horse it too much to get it to pivot, and then I was trying to pass cars and lost spots, so I just had to regroup and change it. But I think we’ll be fine. We just have to adjust the balance a little bit.”
WHAT DO YOU FEEL MAKES YOU AND COLEMAN SO SUCCESSFUL TOGETHER? “For one, his racing IQ is ridiculously high. He’s very, very smart when it comes to racing and understanding what’s about to happen and why they’re doing it, and giving me information before it’s happening. Whether that’s speedway racing, if it’s here, if it’s really anywhere. His racing IQ is just ridiculous. When you add that on top of the relationship that we have, growing up together and still being best friends. We stayed at his house last night in Asheville and my kids were over there hanging out with my wife most of the day. I rode over here with him today, so the relationship that we have is very unique and easy to kind of know what each other is thinking. When you have that thought of him knowing what I need to hear, he’s just able to give me precise, quick information.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE SPOTTING FOR HIM OVER THE OFFSEASON? “I was so excited. That was the best. I told him afterwards. I was up there and of course I talk crap to all the other spotters. I was just having fun, but afterwards I’m so excited for him to win because it’s the first time he’s in a car in Lord knows how long and the way it came down to the end it was a green-white-checker and there was a little rubbing and bumping going on and I was so excited afterwards. I’m cheering and trying to give people high fives, but all there was was the other spotters and they didn’t want to give me a high five. I was almost as excited as we were at Phoenix to see him win. I know he always wanted to win a late model race in front of his kids and that was the first time he was able to do that, so it was cool.”
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