Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Joey Logano Wins $1 Million!

Transcript

Joey Logano Wins $1 Million! · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  It feels good. You know, it's funny because the
• 0:03
  first thing that goes through your mind is, gosh, I was just
• 0:06
  counted for points. But let's be honest, 1,000,000
• 0:09
  bucks is a lot of money and it counts for something.
• 0:11
  So pretty proud of of our race team today really this whole
• 0:17
  weekend and even you know back to the test here.
• 0:21
  We were able to make our car quite a bit faster at the test
• 0:25
  and then also go through so many tires that I said it earlier.
• 0:27
  I don't know if you guys ever watched a movie Miracle before
• 0:30
  and the coach is making him run the suicide drills and he keeps
• 0:33
  saying again and again. That was Paul Wolf to me at the
• 0:37
  test here. I ran over 800 laps in two days
• 0:41
  and I was sore. I was, I had enough.
• 0:44
  It was warm out but proud of the teams for working through that
• 0:48
  day, those two days and and then you know when we came here for
• 0:52
  practice the track was honestly quite a bit different.
• 0:54
  I didn't think the track would be as wide as it was.
• 0:58
  I really thought I was going to be a single groove racetrack
• 1:00
  just like most repays. But they did a fantastic job
• 1:04
  building this racetrack to where it's really racy right off the
• 1:06
  bat and then the execution of qualifying.
• 1:10
  You know, I said to you guys, when we're here it it's, I feel
• 1:14
  like it's the hardest pole to win because there's so many
• 1:17
  factors that go into it. And it takes the whole team to
• 1:19
  do it all the way through, like all the way through the whole
• 1:22
  team to to get that, to earn that clean air.
• 1:25
  And then to be able to execute tonight with the strategy with
• 1:29
  the unknown of what the, the option tire was going to be like
• 1:32
  how long it would last and then you know maintaining like we
• 1:36
  said up front there during the stop as well.
• 1:39
  Hearing that Larson had taken some scuffs and that immediately
• 1:43
  gained 3 or 4 spots. Was there?
• 1:44
  Was there some nerves? OK, I didn't know that I I saw
• 1:49
  him on the bottom passing cars. I was like, man, he kind of came
• 1:51
  out of nowhere because the end of the first stages I I saw him,
• 1:54
  I was about to lap him then then you know, you see him in second.
• 1:58
  What did I miss here? But that was the, you know, the
• 2:01
  call that they made early in the race was to put the yellows on
• 2:05
  and be able to to put, you know basically two lap scuffs on
• 2:10
  which are basically brand new here.
• 2:13
  You know, there's no doubt the fall off with the with the
• 2:17
  option tire to soft tire falls off very quickly the 1st 15
• 2:24
  laps. But then it would just balance
• 2:26
  and it would just stay the same all the way through.
• 2:29
  So I think some of that's because honestly we raced at
• 2:31
  night and it's cooler out and the tracks got more grip.
• 2:35
  Any other parts, let's be honest, it's a new racetrack
• 2:38
  you're going to, it's going to be really hard to get tire wear
• 2:40
  at any brand new racetrack. The fact that they made a
• 2:43
  racetrack that's not single groove to me is a great success.
• 2:48
  I I don't think I've ever seen a repave of any size that that is
• 2:54
  been able to be more than one groove ever.
• 2:57
  So to see us up in three lanes wide, that's crazy, Bob.
• 3:00
  Parker's Fox Sports. So where should NASCAR go from
• 3:04
  here with this tire? With this, with that red tire
• 3:07
  that is, should they put on the cars for New Hampshire or does
• 3:10
  there need to be more work done or what?
• 3:15
  It's probably worth trying. I don't see what there is to
• 3:19
  lose. I I don't know what it would be
• 3:24
  like at Loudon, right. I mean like we said there's a
• 3:26
  lot of fall off for a little bit and then it stays the same.
• 3:29
  What would it be like at Loudon where you know there has been
• 3:32
  more fall off there in the past with an older surface and and
• 3:35
  all that what would it be like there?
• 3:37
  I I don't know I can't answer that you know I don't think
• 3:40
  anyone can I don't think Goodyear can answer it until
• 3:42
  they go there and and run. It might be worth a tire test or
• 3:48
  or just wing it like we did for this one.
• 3:51
  I told you we ran 800 and something laps here throwing
• 3:54
  thirty sets of tires on this thing and this was not one of
• 3:57
  them we ran at all. We did all that for.
• 4:00
  I was like, jeez, we're not even ran the tires that we ran all
• 4:02
  these on. So you ran on the right side.
• 4:04
  Well, the lefts, I don't know. I got them all confused in my
• 4:10
  head right now. We ran one side of them, Yes, I
• 4:14
  think the 54 tried this compound all the way around and the rate
• 4:19
  it fell off at the 1st 10 laps, I think he came in right after
• 4:22
  that, just no good. And that's the ones we actually
• 4:24
  ran. So it kind of worked out.
• 4:29
  Jordan and then Ben. Jordan Bianchi, The Athletic.
• 4:33
  Can you kind of go into what you guys were working on in depth at
• 4:36
  that test and why? What was the carryover?
• 4:39
  And then also it seems like it's carried over elsewhere as well
• 4:43
  to other tracks, not to short tracks.
• 4:44
  Yeah, I mean so when you do these tire tests like they they
• 4:48
  let you work on your car for about, I don't know couple hours
• 4:52
  before they start slinging tires at it.
• 4:56
  So you know, that's kind of like your that's your payment for
• 5:00
  showing up for two days with your race car.
• 5:03
  You you get 2 hours of practice of of just being able to try
• 5:07
  things with your car, and then it's one set of tires after
• 5:11
  another for the rest of the two days.
• 5:15
  That just shows you how valuable practice is these days, 'cause
• 5:17
  you just don't ever get any of it, especially testing with data
• 5:21
  on the car and you're able to actually see stuff.
• 5:23
  You just don't get that anymore, right?
• 5:25
  That's like that's the one you get.
• 5:26
  That's my one for the year, right?
• 5:28
  It's you got to make the most of it.
• 5:31
  So you know, we worked on some things and and tried to prove
• 5:36
  some theories out and it's really the biggest thing is
• 5:38
  just, you know, try the things that you're feel like you're a
• 5:41
  little lost on to get direction on stuff and then tune from
• 5:44
  there. You you you two years ago as a
• 5:47
  homestead test you guys used a Goodyear tire test there that
• 5:50
  kind of flipped everything and kind of propelled you to the
• 5:52
  championship. And I thought there was a test
• 5:53
  last year too that helped you guys.
• 5:56
  Maybe I'm wrong there. But what is it with the test?
• 5:58
  Is it just because you have an opportunity to kind of
• 5:59
  experiment that you're? Able to do you just have an
• 6:03
  opportunity to try things and like I said, like when we show
• 6:06
  up to practice you guys know what it is now.
• 6:08
  I mean you're married to the springs you got, you're married
• 6:10
  to the bars, you got, you got some sway bar arms, you got
• 6:12
  right heights and wedge and air pressure and you got 15 minutes.
• 6:19
  You know like that's good luck developing off of that And then
• 6:23
  you're going to come back and change some things four or five
• 6:27
  months later, come back with a track that's completely
• 6:29
  different and wondered if the changes you made were actually
• 6:32
  better or not from the last time you were there.
• 6:34
  Who knows. So you never get a clean
• 6:38
  back-to-back read. You know the AB read and when
• 6:42
  you come to test you can do a quick you can ABA if you want
• 6:45
  and go back and you can like I said go back on the the actual
• 6:49
  data and see what it's doing. You know a lot deeper than just
• 6:52
  throttle and steering and brake that we get on SMT.
• 6:55
  So it it's just an opportunity to learn is what it is and it's
• 6:58
  it's hard to get it these days is I mean it's the same for
• 7:01
  everyone's would say the same thing sitting up here but I mean
• 7:04
  I I will say I mean Paul's AI mean Paul's a workhorse I mean
• 7:08
  he'll he'll put you through this thing and it's I don't know we
• 7:15
  both have a the same mentality when we show up to a test that
• 7:18
  it's it's like a race to us because it is our biggest
• 7:23
  opportunity to to turn something around and let's be honest with
• 7:27
  the year we've had so far we we can't afford to to be LAX in in
• 7:32
  a lot of those situations. Joey Ben White with Fayetteville
• 7:38
  Observer in speed sport. So and I asked Paul this
• 7:41
  question and he he said he was a little nervous about it.
• 7:44
  The car is so good. You start on the pole, you put
• 7:47
  all this effort into it. Were you worried about maybe
• 7:50
  somebody getting into you or something going wrong with the
• 7:53
  car, even though the car is pretty solid?
• 7:55
  I mean, did that cross your mind or did you have time to even
• 7:58
  think about that? Well, I mean, anything can
• 8:00
  happen. It's a race, right?
• 8:01
  Like anything can happen at any point.
• 8:03
  You know, how many times have we watched NASCAR races where,
• 8:06
  well, you think this someone's got it in the bag.
• 8:08
  You know, I I see it all the time in the in the Fox booth or
• 8:11
  the Xfinity races. I think this guy's got it won.
• 8:13
  And then all of a sudden you're like, are you kidding me?
• 8:15
  Like the most bizarre thing happens.
• 8:18
  Luckily for us, none of that happened today.
• 8:20
  I mean honestly our, our, our toughest moments was racing the
• 8:25
  Gibbs cars because their cars were very opposite of ours,
• 8:28
  which hey, the 54 was at the test here too.
• 8:31
  They fired off fast, fell off hard and that's what the the 20
• 8:35
  did and then also the 11 where he was able to fire off really,
• 8:39
  really good pressure, pressure me for 15 laps and then it would
• 8:44
  fall off. The concerning part is, you
• 8:46
  know, we were able to hold them off, get ahead, caution came out
• 8:50
  and then he re fired again. Good.
• 8:53
  And I was like, Oh no. And then once I once again, once
• 8:57
  I got 15 laps on it, you know, I can feel that my car was better
• 9:00
  than his and I can start to, you know, kind of like him a little
• 9:03
  bit. Jimmotormotorsport.com Joey
• 9:08
  before tonight, has this been a difficult season for you and
• 9:13
  Paul to try to get wrap your arms around as to how to get
• 9:17
  better. I mean you've LED laps and races
• 9:20
  you have a runner up finish other ones you may look like you
• 9:24
  guys were out to lunch. I mean, is it been a hard one to
• 9:27
  kind of figure out what how to get back on track?
• 9:31
  Yeah, it's been a challenging year no doubt.
• 9:34
  And for sure short tracks are are wheelhouse and kind of
• 9:39
  always have been whether it's myself or Paul or us together or
• 9:44
  whatever it is. But it seems like short tracks
• 9:46
  are are kind of our thing and so you got to capitalize when
• 9:51
  you're at them or high fall off tracks like last week in
• 9:54
  Darlington. Yeah we had a top five run going
• 9:57
  until we speed up I speed on pit Rd. the the final run.
• 10:02
  So we got speed of high fall off in short tracks.
• 10:09
  You know what and you know next week in Charlotte it's kind of a
• 10:11
  inbetweener of what that is. Obviously Blaney had a a great
• 10:15
  run there last year winning the 600.
• 10:17
  So you know, hopefully, you know we're able to lot learn a lot
• 10:21
  from that and be able to be fast next week for the Coke 600 do.
• 10:26
  We have any additional questions for Joey, we go to read and then
• 10:29
  go back to Mark. Reed Spencer with the NASCAR
• 10:34
  wire. Joey, you seem seems like when
• 10:39
  when you go to a new situation, you know whether it's the clash
• 10:43
  of the Coliseum, the Gateway, then you race at Gateway, a new
• 10:46
  situation here at Wilkesboro with the 2O2 tire choices,
• 10:50
  things like that. You guys seem to be able to
• 10:53
  adapt to that extremely well. What?
• 10:55
  What gives you that quality? I wish I knew.
• 11:01
  I really do. I don't know it.
• 11:06
  It seems like you know. I don't.
• 11:10
  I don't know. I don't know exactly what it is.
• 11:12
  It's it's obviously that our whole team does a really good
• 11:15
  job at anticipating what a what a race will be like or you know
• 11:22
  what we're going to need in the car without any history.
• 11:26
  We we do a great job anticipating whether that's from
• 11:29
  just years of racing or I don't know what else it could be.
• 11:36
  I feel like a strength in in myself.
• 11:38
  Just speaking for myself as a driver, I feel like I adapt
• 11:41
  really quickly. Once everyone has time, I
• 11:43
  usually lose a bit of that advantage.
• 11:45
  I don't know why that is. It doesn't really.
• 11:49
  I can't add up and make any sense of it, but it just seems
• 11:52
  like that's kind of how it's been.
• 11:56
  Mark Mark Garrow, PRN, Joey The difference between winning this
• 12:00
  race first time, second time, and how much does 1,000,000
• 12:04
  bucks mean to your race team? Quite a bit, quite a bit.
• 12:11
  And 1,000,000 reasons to maybe smiling today, that's for sure.
• 12:17
  Yeah, I mean it's, it's it's huge, you know, compared to the
• 12:21
  first time. Well, I I guess you can say
• 12:23
  1,000,000 bucks isn't worth as much as it used to be.
• 12:26
  Maybe that's one thing we should change is, you know, we should
• 12:28
  keep up with inflation. Should maybe.
• 12:32
  I mean how much is it more now from The Who started the All
• 12:35
  Star race How many years ago they started 1,000,000 bucks
• 12:39
  1985. Oh my goodness, it should be
• 12:41
  three times the amount now. It's probably close to that.
• 12:46
  It probably is. I don't know where I was going
• 12:50
  with all that. Sorry, but it felt nice.
• 12:54
  It still feels good to to pull in the Victory Lane for sure, no
• 12:57
  no matter what the honestly, no matter what the the this, the
• 13:01
  check says it feels great to win and just beat everybody right.
• 13:05
  That's that's what it's all about.
• 13:08
  Anything additional for Joey? $1,000,000 better than that
• 13:12
  flight in the F16. I would have definitely paid a
• 13:18
  lot of money to go for a ride in that.
• 13:19
  That's one thing you want to do one time.
• 13:21
  I don't know, I might pay 1,000,000 bucks not to do it
• 13:25
  again after going for that ride. Is is pretty awesome, though not
• 13:34
  like that. Not that.
• 13:41
  Not that. Bad.
• 13:42
  All right, Joey. Well, congratulations.
• 13:43
  Thanks for joining us tonight. All right.
• 13:45
  Thanks guys.