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NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES: CROWN ROYAL PRESENTS THE JEFF KYLE 400 AT THE BRICKYARDJuly 26, 2015Joey LoganoINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA THE MODERATOR: Joey Logano is here. He's the race runner‑up. He drives the No.22 Shell‑Pennzoil Ford for Team Penske. It's got to be a heart breaker. You gave it a heck of a try, a heck of an effort throughout this race. Just talk about maybe that last restart and what you saw. JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, I thought overall the day went well. You know, you come to Indy, it's all about the win, either win or finish last. It doesn't really matter anywhere in between. At least that's the way I race when we come to a racetrack like this, Daytona and Indy. It's all about getting trophies and rings and making out with bricks. Unfortunately we come up a little bit short. So proud of our team. Nothing to hang our heads down about. We had a good day, just need a little bit more. Need to find a little bit more speed in our race car. Had really good restarts, able to cycle ourselves onto the front row, which was key, had a good last restart, just didn't get the push behind me I needed. When I started pulling out ahead there, I got a good drive and was able to get up ahead of him and then he started pulling me back a little bit with the side draft and then the 78 was also able to get to his bumper and push him ahead and get him into position into 1 which is really hard to clear on the outside, but we tried. Then got a good run down the back straightaway. I knew my run wasn't good enough to get inside of outside of him. Really all I had was to be able to just get him off line and I drove in, went shallow on him, just trying to see if I could loosen him up, which didn't seem to work with this package. I think the extended bumper doesn't allow us to loosen people up to make the pass. But I was just trying to get him to wash up off the bottom and try to get me some air and get the drive off the corner. He did wash up; the plan worked, I got him to wash up, but going so fast we don't have much motor, I go to the gas and it just wasn't going to accelerate underneath him and wasn't able to continue that. That was kind of my last ditch effort. I tried one more time just to do something, got loose off of 1 and that was kind of the end of it. Like I said, overall it's a good day, just second hurts. It always does. But it's always better than third, so I've got to tell myself that. Q. Do the new rules make a difference, or is it still kind of back to the drawing board on that as far as this track? JOEY LOGANO: For the most part I'll let you guys be the judge of that. I was inside the car and can't really see much. Really, to be honest with you, it looks like you have three laps to make something happen. After that you kind of spread out and it's hard to make the pass. The daft down the straightaways is obviously larger for sure but doesn't make up for what we lose in the corners so it's hard to make it happen somehow. I think we can fine tune the package and maybe see something different, but for the most part it seemed like Indy out there to me. Restarts are chaos and a lot of fun, and then you've got to just make the most you can on the starts, and the strategy was key. I thought it was‑‑ at one point I got lost. I didn't know what was going on. The caution came out, and I said, Todd, I don't know what's going on out here, where am I, what's going on, where do I line up on this whole thing? Really all you can do is just pass as many cars as you can, just go as fast as you can and let the strategy work out as a driver and let the people smarter than you in the pit box make the calls and figure that stuff out. I know my role. Q. With it being as hot as it was inside the car today, does NASCAR need to change anything to make the cars cooler by Michigan? JOEY LOGANO: I would like that. I got a huge blister on my foot, I know that, so that hurts. I think the extended bumper cover on the back of these things doesn't let the airflow underneath the car like it used to without it, and I think it builds the inside temperature up. I'm still sweating like crazy. I've got sweat in my eyes. I think that lets the in‑car temperature get hot. Maybe something different with that or mandate a couple of driver hoses I think would be a good thing. Personally if we can get something to cool the drivers a little bit better, after watching the XFINITY race yesterday, I think it got all of us Cup guys a little nervous because the races are longer, and I know we did a lot of things to our car to try and keep the driver cool and I'm sure everybody else did, too, but it just isn't enough. It's just too hot inside those cars. And obviously when we put air inside the cars, we're going to give up performance, so if we can mandate it and make everybody have it, it's not a penalty. It's another way to add drag, which is a good thing. That's what we're trying to do with this package anyways. Q. Does second here sting worse because it's Indy, because you won the Daytona 500? If you finished second last week or if you finished second next week, would it be any different? JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, the worst part is the same guy beat me the last two times I finished second. I'm glad he's back and all, but geez oh Pete, you don't have to come back like that. Man, we've been working our guts out all year and he comes right back and doing it. I know he's been working hard, getting his foot back together. It's impressive what those guys have been doing, too. That's amazing, the run they're on. Obviously he's definitely going to make it into the Chase and he's going to have some good points. He's got four wins? Is that four? Golly. But yeah, it hurts more, just because it's Indy, right? Like I said, it's all that matters when you come to these racetracks is winning, and obviously with the guy I drive for, he really wants to win these races, and you don't want to let him down. I'm sure it stings for him just as much as it stings for me. He's been coming here a long time and deserves to get a win here, and I wanted to be the guy and be the team to give it to him. Q. You also mentioned speed and horsepower and your crew chief mentioned that when I talked to him out on the grid. Is that a horsepower thing? Is that where you guys feel like you're lacking on this size track? JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, well, when you add drag, you're on the throttle more, right, and then we also have less power than we had last time we were here. So when you're on the throttle a lot your car is kind of topped out. It's going as fast as you can go, so you're not slowing down much in the corners, which means you don't have much throttle response when you go back to the gas, which the drive off and that's kind of how you accelerate underneath somebody and try to do that in the short shoots. The cars don't have that right now because of the power that was taken away, and that's what we're racing. You know, and it's okay, don't take me wrong, it's not a bad thing. We're trying to work down a way to make our package the best racing we can get, not only on mile‑and‑a‑halfs but two‑and‑a‑half miles or short tracks. We've got to go all these different directions and figure it out. It's hard because for the draft to really come into play, I think you've got to be wide open all the way around, and if you're not wide open all the way around, then handling is going to come into play which means you need clean air in the corners. It's kind of like in between right now. We kind of need one or the other, I think, with the package to make close, tight racing, I believe. That's my thought, but I don't know that. Q. Where would you rank this in terms of career disappointments? JOEY LOGANO: Thanks (laughing). At least I didn't crash. Q. And then secondly, coming into today, Kyle had never won‑‑ JOEY LOGANO: That was a kick in the... Q. Sorry. Coming into today, Kyle had never won one of the big three, so my question is how nice would it have been to have denied Kyle one of the big three because obviously he's a rival? JOEY LOGANO: I don't care who we beat, as long as we win. I want to beat everybody. I want to deny everybody to a win because that's what our job is. Good for them. They're a great group of guys. I've known them for a long time, a lot of them with my XFINITY team when I was over there, so they're a great group of guys. I'm friends with most of them so I'm proud of them. It's really cool. I'm jealous of them, also, because I want to be in that victory lane right now, but it hurts, you know, and is it the all‑time biggest disappointment of my career? No, it's not that bad. I can think of a lot worse things that could have happened today. I'm still walking, I'm still breathing. That's a lot better than some people are doing. I've got to count my blessings and thank God for that. Q. Even though it hurts, as a fellow competitor, is it fairly remarkable what Kyle Busch has done, considering‑‑ this is like Peyton Manning with the neck injury winning the Super Bowl next year, what he's done since he's returned, he's a better performance than he gave before he got hurt? JOEY LOGANO: What is he, four out of five the last few races? Pretty damned good. It's all right, I guess. Apparently he's been watching while he's been getting ready and he's a man on a mission. Just got to hope he slows down a little bit before the Chase starts. Right now it's fine and we're just trying to win races and having a good time, and here in a few weeks it's going to get very serious. Not that it's not right now, but it's going to get very serious when it comes Chase time and the pressure is going to pick up and that's when we're going to find out who has the strongest team and who's the strongest willed guys out there. I put all the money in the world on my team. Q. Joey, have you and Roger been face to face yet? JOEY LOGANO: No, I haven't seen him, uh‑uh. Q. So you're hiding from him? JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, I was just angry on the radio. He was happy, so he was saying I did a good job, which I know it stinks and a lot of times it's hard to take the high road when it stinks. But Roger is a great leader and he's a great guy to have on your side. I haven't got to see him yet. I'm sure I will when I get out of here. THE MODERATOR: Joey, good luck next week at Pocono. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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