• Joey Logano won his second Cup Series championship with his victory today at Phoenix.

• The win is his fourth of the season and fifth overall counting the Clash at the Coliseum.

• Logano becomes the second Ford driver to win more than one title, joining David Pearson (1968-69).

• The win today is the 31st of his Cup Series career and 29th with Ford.

• It also marks Logano’s 12th career playoff race win.

• Those 29 wins put him tied with David Pearson for 5th on the all-time Ford win list.

• Today’s win is Ford’s 720th all-time in NASCAR Cup Series competition.

• Of Team Penske’s 89 MENCS wins with Ford, 62 have come since rejoining Ford in 2013.

 

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – A TWO-TIME NASCAR CUP SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP.  HOW DOES THAT SOUND?  “Amazing.  It felt like it took too long to get back to this point, but it’s so special to win championships.  It’s what you want.  It’s the only thing I race for.  Race wins are nice, but championships is what it’s all about.  We were in great position there.  Everybody on the Team Penske team did so great.  Teamwork from the get-go, working through practice together and everybody trying to put together what would be the best 22 car for us to win this championship and the goal was achieved.  I can’t thank everyone enough for the opportunity.  It’s so special to win these things and to get this for the guys.  I know how bad Paul wanted it.  I’ve never seen him stress so much the last few weeks, and I was right there with him the whole time, so it was pretty special to get it.”

 

HOW DID THE RACE EXECUTION GO?  “It went great.  Everything went perfect today.”

 

YOU ARE ONE OF 17 MULTIPLE CHAMPIONS IN THE CUP SERIES.  HOW ABOUT THAT?  “It’s special.  Three would be better.  Let’s go get another one.”

 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SHARE THIS WITH HUDSON?  “We’ve had so many conversations over the last couple of weeks before bedtime.  Ever since Harvick gave his son a ride in the car I’ve always wanted to do that with Hudson.  He’s such a little car guy, so it was a special moment to ride together.  I can’t say enough about this race team.  They just grind it out.  They’re so amazing.  Paul Wolfe, everybody that puts so much time and effort into the last few weeks and not just this 22 team.  This goes so much deeper when you think about Roush Yates Engines and the motor that’s in this bad boy, and everyone at Ford.  All the employees of Shell and Pennzoil and everyone who has supported me.”

YOU TOLD THE KIDS BEFORE LEAVING YOU WERE GOING TO COME HOME WITH ANOTHER CHAMPIONSHIP.  CONGRATULATIONS.  “We did it! We’re champions again, yes! Oh, my God, I’m so excited. Thank you to everybody, my team. You guys are amazing. Gave me a good race car, good pit stop there at the end, got us up in front. Boy, that was just intense there at the end.  It’s all about championships. That’s what it’s all about, and we worked so hard the last couple weeks trying to put ourselves in position. And everything that happened in 2020, I knew we just wanted to have a solid run and do this today.  I can’t thank Ford and Shell-Pennzoil enough for supporting me over the last 10 years, getting us a couple championships today. All our partners at Team Penske, everybody that works on these cars. It’s such a big deal to win these championships. It impacts so many people’s lives.  Obviously the news this morning with Coy, too, I don’t know what to think. But, obviously, my condolences go to the Gibbs family. But just an incredible day for us, and kind of mixed emotions at the moment.”

DID YOU EVER HAVE ANY DOUBTS ABOUT WINNING A SECOND TITLE?  “No, no, I knew going into this thing that we’re going to win the championship. I told the guys we were the favorite from Daytona, and we truly believed it, and that’s the difference.  Man, it’s like I said, I had a good team with a bunch of confidence, and we had all the reason in the world to be confident. I’ve never been truly this ready for a championship race, and yeah, we did it, man. I can’t believe it.”

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE FAMILY HERE?  “Oh, man, it’s so special. JayMo and Emilia are at home. Hi, guys. Daddy will be home soon, but we’re going to party a little bit first. We might be in a little rough shape when we get home, but man, this is what it’s all about, though. When you’re a kid his age, my dream was to win Cup championships, and here we are with two of them. Man, it means so much. It’s so special. I just want to celebrate!”

MARK RUSHBROOK POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE

MARK RUSHBROOK, Global Director, Ford Performance – WHAT HAS JOEY LOGANO BROUGHT TO FORD?  “Having Team Penske as a partner for Ford, they are such a strong team, such a great partner and you saw the strength across their cars today and throughout most of the season.  Joey, I don’t remember how many times he’s been in the Championship 4, but it seems like almost every year and he delivers.  He’s a racer.  He pays attention to every single detail and especially getting locked in early like he did.  That’s all he’s been focused on the last three weeks – Paul Wolfe and the team and everybody.  He’s just so committed and so strong and executed today every lap.”

 

WHAT WAS A TURNING POINT FOR FORD THIS YEAR?  “It’s been a great season for the sport, I think, just with the Next Gen car coming in and it definitely mixed things up a lot.  We did start out well in many ways with the win in the Daytona 500.  We were fast at some of the early races.  Chase Briscoe won here, but then we seemed to struggle a lot and a lot of it was just coming to grips with the new car and really optimizing.  It’s different at every track and we found that we could get the setup right across our teams at some of the different tracks, but not at all of them.  It’s part of learning the new car and I think definitely in the second half of the seasons, the last third of the season came on really strong.  There was a lot of extra work from Doug Yates and Roush Yates Engines and some extra power that they’ve been bringing these last couple races and it all came together and really strong today.”

 

BRAD’S CAR CAUGHT FIRE TODAY.  IS THERE ANY IDEA ABOUT A SOLUTION OR IS IT JUST A FREAK SITUATION?  “I think there’s a lot in the sport we still need to figure out.  NASCAR made a lot of changes part way through the season, which certainly seemed to help, but there’s just so much variability from track to track.  A lot of it is due to the rubber build-up.  Brad last week at Martinsville there was almost no rubber build-up in his car.  This week, obviously there was a lot, so we need to take a close look at that through the off-season as a sport and as a manufacturer and see what we can do to improve for next season.”

 

TWO CHAMPIONSHIPS THIS WEEKEND.  WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR FORD?  “The truck race on Friday and the championship and Zane Smith and what Front Row Motorsports has done in starting that truck program, and Zane being as strong as he was and, again, a dominant race that he had as well.  He’s got a really strong future in the sport and that means so much to us because the Truck Series is important to us.  It’s a great place for talent and for us to develop that in all elements of the team, especially in the driver, so that was an important day for us and then to cap it off today with the Cup Series and Joey and the championship, it’s been a great weekend.”

 

A DAYTONA 500 WIN.  A TRUCK TITLE AND A CUP TITLE.  HOW DO YOU ASSESS THE YEAR?  “At the end of the day and at the end of the season it’s the championship that matters, so to get the Truck championship and the Cup championship means so much, and it’s great to see our young guys excelling as well with Austin Cindric as a rookie to come in at the Daytona 500 and to win, and Chase Briscoe getting a win here in Phoenix earlier in the season.  Strength across our different teams and our drivers and really happy with where our program is right now.”

__________

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang (Finished 2nd) – “I wish we could have won one.  We had a great car to do it and it just didn’t happen.  I’m proud of the effort.  We had a winning car and it just didn’t happen.”

YOU WERE TRYING TO REEL JOEY IN THERE AT THE END, BUT JUST FEEL SHORT.  “You can’t pass anybody.  You get behind someone and get tight and it takes your air away and that’s all you can do.”

 

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang (Finished 5th) – “On the restarts I kept getting on the chip and getting hung in gear and we would get passed by a couple of cars.  I just needed a whole run.”

 

__________

 

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang (Finished 4th) – WHAT DID YOU NEED THAT LAST RUN?  “I just didn’t fire off near as good.  I was kind of on top of the racetrack a little bit more than I really had been all day.  Truthfully, the 22 and the 12 were so good on the short run every time.  I just had nothing for them.  On the long run, I was typically a little bit better I just would give up so much on the short run.  I just didn’t fire off very good there at the end.  I don’t really know why.  I don’t know if the track just changed there as the sun was going down.  It wasn’t as good.  I felt that was the worst run balance-wise we had all day.  It’s unfortunate that’s when it came, but, overall, it was a good day.”

 

YOU HAVE TO BE PROUD OF YOUR TEAM FOR THE WAY THEY FINISHED THE YEAR?  “Yeah, I definitely feel like we’re a top five team week in and week out, especially these last 10 weeks.  It’s just a matter of putting it all together.  This was one of the best races we ran start to finish today, but we just came up a little bit short.  We still have to get a little bit better, but we definitely got closer to where we need to be.”

SOMETHING TO BUILD ON FOR SURE?  “Yeah.  Even five years ago, three years ago or last year we were lucky to run 20th and now we’re disappointed with a fourth place.  That says a lot about the team and how far we’ve come.  You always want a lot more, but, overall, it was a good season.  We just have to come back next year and be a little bit better.”

 

__________

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Kohler Generators Ford Mustang (Finished 35th) – IS THIS A CONTINUATION OF WHAT WE’VE SEEN WITH RUBBER BUILD UP?  “Yeah, I guess.  It just caught fire and the next thing I knew we were sitting there.  It’s a bummer, but we’ll hopefully something from it and move on.”

 

YOU MADE SOME GOOD STRIDES THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.  HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT NEXT YEAR?  “We’re making a lot of progress.  It’s obviously a bummer way to end the season, but a lot of progress as a company and we need to have a big off-season of learning.”

Ford Performance PR