NASCAR CUP SERIES: AMERICA 250 FLORIDA DUEL 1 AT DAYTONA

February 12, 2026

Joey Logano

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by our Duel No. 1 race winner Joey Logano. We'll open it up to questions.

Q. I mostly say this in jest, they changed the championship format, after the first checkered flag, you're the points leader.

JOEY LOGANO: It's a start (laughter). It's a good start, but I do like that. It's funny.

Q. Seemed like from the outside observer, the Fords could pretty much impose their will. Was it a car number thing or something to that that you have a really good package for Sunday?

JOEY LOGANO: It's never one thing in any form of motorsports or any type of track. I think what you see there is some good teamwork. I think you seen RFK all get in line together. They were pretty committed to each other. Ryan and I kind of had our thing going on.

As much as it looked like we were all working together, I never really seen an RFK car most of the day. Might have been side by side. I was kind of working with the 12 most of the time. Just 'cause it happened to be that way. Just worked out that way.

Ryan did a great job. There's always a plan when the race starts. Everyone says, The plan is the plan until lap one.

For us, it goes throughout the race. The plan worked all the way down till the end there, the last green-white-checkered.

Proud of everybody. Our execution on pit road with Nick Hensley, our gas man, he nailed it. Coleman on the roof did great. Car was pretty good. Yeah, obviously it's great right now.

Still got work to do. That's the ultimate trophy to try to win. I will say the Duel trophy is badass. I don't know if anyone has seen it. It is a cool, cool trophy. Not as cool as that one, but it's neat-looking.

Q. After this off-season, how important is this race knocking off the rust, figuring out the best ways for pushing?

JOEY LOGANO: I mean, I think the Duels, there's a few things you try to learn, right? You try to learn what your car is doing. You try to figure out the draft, which you can and can't do. The draft changes before the pit stop. Ryan and I were trying to get up there, and we couldn't 'cause we had no help behind us. Like, if the third car is saving fuel with you, you don't have the energy to get there and move the line forward.

We made a couple attempts, but it takes three to four cars that are committed to get there. We just couldn't find that before the pit stop.

The well-executed pit stop is what put us in position afterwards to race. Like I said, we learned some things. I think the whole field has learned that pushing each other is pretty sketchy. I was thinking about it driving over here. Daytona 500 could be a total wreck-fest 'cause if you think about Duels, it's a heat race, and everyone is like, Don't tear up your car, get what you can out of it, but don't crash. We wrecked a lot of stuff. That's everyone not racing for the Daytona 500, so... Say a prayer. It's going to be crazy.

Q. A lot of people do think you can protect your car, that you don't have to push it in this race. If you didn't go that extra put it on the edge, would you walk away, how much would you not be ready to compete in the Daytona 500?

JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, I think there's a balance there, right? You want to go out there and see what you can do. I put my car in every position I possibly could. I was on the bottom. Tight on cars. I was up top. I was the second car pushing. I was a lead car. I tried to get in every spot I possibly could to get my idea of my strengths and weaknesses.

You try to go to work on 'em, but it's hard to work on 'em in the next couple days, right? You have a couple 50-minute practices. You got half the cars out there. You have 20 cars out there, it's one thing. You have 40 cars out there, that's a whole 'nother thing.

When we go out there and practice tomorrow, it's going to be 10, 12 cars at most, at most. It's hard to learn a lot in practice. We'll try our best to try to get some directions.

Q. You said you thought the Daytona 500 would be crazy. It always is. The Duels are always a little that way. What leads you to believe that it might be more like that this Sunday?

JOEY LOGANO: Everyone's push-ability seems awful. Everybody was. I didn't see any car that was taking a push that was, like, comfortable on the straightaways. A lot of cars were just squirrelly, right? I haven't watched replays yet, but all the wrecks happened on the straightaway. I'm assuming that's from pushes more times than not. I'm assuming everyone's push-ability is weak.

Q. What does this do to set the tone for you between now and Sunday afternoon?

JOEY LOGANO: There's no doubt it's a momentum builder. That part's great. It's 10 points. Point leader, to your point. Cool (smiling).

But yeah, I mean, that's it, right? The goal is to go out there and try to score some points. Ryan and I were able to max points. First and second, you couldn't have drawn it up any better. When you come to a green-white-checkered, have you your teammate behind you, you get the lane choice, I couldn't have drawn it up any better than that.

The trust I have with Ryan is pretty deep at this point. I think that's back and forth. That's just years of working together. He's a really smart speedway racer, as well. It's fun to work with him because he's got some different views than I do, but we're able to kind of take those and put 'em together and be really strong.

Yeah, hope to stay around each other for the whole race. Definitely we're pretty tough.

Q. Did you notice anything different with the Chevrolets, with their new body?

JOEY LOGANO: I did not, but I also did not get near 'em. I think at one point I may have -- I started behind the 48. Saving fuel. No one's really doing much. No, not yet. Not yet. All of a sudden there's going to be a point they're pretty strong. I think we'll see as the season goes along.

Q. (No microphone.)

JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, I was. I don't know what's different to make the whole field that way. It could be everyone being more aggressive setup-wise, coming from qualifying. Could be a little tire change that maybe no one really recognizes or sees, right? Could just be a little thing like that that may be different. I don't know. I don't know. It's interesting to see the whole field like that, though.