JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – CAN YOU BELIEVE HOW MUCH HAS HAPPENED IN A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME WHEN 10 YEARS AGO YOU STARTED WITH TEAM PENSKE AND NOW YOU’RE ON A LIST OF THE 75 GREATEST DRIVERS? “It’s obviously an incredible honor, especially when you look at the other drivers that are on the list and to have your name involved with those guys – a lot of them are ones I grew up watching racing and some that I raced against. A lot of them I remember the first few years of my career kicking my butt and thinking, ‘Boy, I just hope I’m in the sport. Forget being on a list like this.’ I was talking to Walt Czarnecki this week. Afterwards he called me and congratulated me and I thought, ‘You know what? This is really kind of our award because I would never have made it if it wasn’t for you.’ It’s really a shared thing. I was this close of not having a Cup ride and you look at the last 11 years – to rack up enough stats to make that list is pretty cool for me.”
SHOULD SECURITY BREAK UP FIGHTS ON PIT ROAD? “I don’t know. I don’t have an answer for you on that. I’m not a huge fan of tearing up race cars because that’s dangerous, but it’s also probably not safe to have fights on pit road either if they’re not equally matched. A big guy versus a little guy, you might want to go run into a wall. I don’t know. I don’t have the answer. You look at the NHL and sometimes they let them fight and sometimes they don’t. I don’t know. Usually, it never escalates into too much. Typically, it’s just a shoving match or people yelling at each other, but I don’t know. I don’t have an answer.
HOW DOES IT CHANGE YOUR MENTAL FEELINGS AFTER YOU WIN AND KNOW YOU’RE IN THE PLAYOFFS? “It’s a relief for about a day and then you’re back at it again. It’s kind of like one box is checked, but not the ultimate box. It’s like one stepping stone to get there. If your goal is to win the championship, well, first we have to make the playoffs. Now we’ve made the playoffs and now we need to get as many playoff points as possible to stack ourselves into the playoffs the best we possibly can to up our chances. So that’s pressure again. And then you get into the playoffs and it’s, OK, we made it to the next round. OK, we made it to the next round, but we’ve got to do it again. It’s gonna get harder and harder. The NASCAR schedule and point system is there to apply pressure all the time. It is not like it used to be, where you won a race and you’re locked into the playoffs and everyone is stacking up pretty close in the points to where you can have a bad race and it doesn’t matter. It’s not like that anymore. The regular season points it turns into playoff points. It’s about the regular season championship and the top 10 in points is big. Every stage is big. Every race win is now big. You can’t let your foot off the gas. You’ve got to go all the time and the schedule is designed to do that and the points are designed to do that as it should be. That’s what fans want. That’s what I get a little confused sometimes when fans say they want it to be like it used to be. Do you remember what that was? That sucked. This is great. The intensity is ridiculous all the way through the whole season and then each round of the playoffs it just gets more and more. As a driver, I’m never comfortable and I never go, ‘Well, that race really didn’t matter.’ I never say that. I am disappointed after every bad race because there’s a lot on the line.”
CALE YARBOROUGH TOOK YOU AROUND DARLINGTON IN YOUR ROOKIE YEAR. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER? “I’ll remember it forever. I know that. I don’t sit in the passenger seat very often, but when it’s Cale Yarborough around Darlington I’ll strap in and go for a ride because that’s like the coolest thing you can do. I remember some of the things he told me about how to get around this place and it hasn’t changed much since he raced because it all lined up really, really well about how you get around the place and what to do. Part of it was cool, just sitting in the passenger seat and watching him wheel it around here. That was really neat obviously, but, like I said, his advice really transferred over to the modern day – even to today.”
HOW BIG OF A DEAL IS NEXT WEEK AT NORTH WILKESBORO? “I think the atmosphere is gonna be amazing. I mean, you’ve got two throwback weekends in a row if you ask me. You’ve got this weekend, which is great, and then you’re gonna get North Wilkesboro, which is the most hyped race of the year. That’s the race everyone has been talking about, kind of like the Clash before there was the Clash. What’s it gonna be like right before we went there the first time. Now it’s North Wilkesboro and what’s it gonna be like? Everyone has talked about it. I’m pretty excited to get up there and see what the racing is like. You’ve got a million bucks on the line. It doesn’t matter where you race it’s gonna be intense and exciting, but I think the nostalgia going back there and that excitement that a lot of fans and competitor have as well has added a piece, for sure.”
THE FORMAT IS OLD SCHOOL. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THAT? “Yeah. There’s no reason to change it up until you race there the first time. How do you know what you would adjust? I think tires are gonna be key and that will be important, but let it just be a race. Let it be a normal race and see what it comes out like.”
WHAT IS IT LIKE WITH KEVIN HARVICK IN THE BROADCAST BOOTH? “Kevin does a good job up there. He’s fun to work with. We’ve gotten to know each other really well, whether it’s flying back and forth to some races or being up there in the booth. Obviously, he has an incredible eye for the sport to kind of know what’s going on. He’s been in it for so long he can see it really quickly. He’s obviously got a lot of experience up there over the last few years to be ready for his next venture and I think he’s gonna be great for the sport. That’s one of the things I think is best about Kevin is that he’s not just leaving us high and dry. Kevin has a big fan following. He is very vocal in our sport in a positive way to make it better all the time, and for him to just race and leave would hurt all of us. The fact that he’s staying around to still be involved with the sport, whether it’s just from being around or being on TV and talking to the fans is all really, really good.”
HAS HE GIVEN YOU ANY TIPS ON HIS BROADCAST STYLE? “No. We don’t talk about that. We usually talk about race cars.”
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