 |
| Logano won big at Michigan |
Logano said his Michigan
score “was huge. Obviously, it couldn’t come at a better time and at a better
race track to keep our Chase hopes going. I felt like our two best shots
were last weekend and this weekend. We capitalized 100-percent last week with
the pole, leading the most laps and winning the race, and I feel like we’ve got
another really good shot at it this weekend after seeing the way we ran here in
the spring.
“We’ve got a notebook to
go off of now that we’ve come here for the second time.”
Despite the win, he said
he will approach Saturday night’s race the same way he has approached them all
in recent weeks.
“Over the last few weeks
– ever since the All-Star Race – this team has been really good and really
consistent and making up a lot of points. When we had an opportunity to win, we
were able to capitalize on it last weekend. I think we’ll do the same
thing (at Bristol).
“We still can’t afford
to have a bad race,” said Logano, who is 17 points outside the Top-10 and in
solid contention for a Wild Card selection to the Chase. “These are three very,
very important races. I think our goal is to get in there on points right
now (and) I think if you have two wins, you’re pretty confident you’re
gonna be in it.
“If we can get that win,
it would be huge. If not, we’ll have some points we’ve got to make up. But
this team can do it. I’m very confident coming into this weekend, for
sure.”
While not necessarily
predicting this kind of success in his first year with Penske Racing, Logano
said he is not surprised, either.
“The cool thing about
racing is you never know what’s going to happen. That’s the cool part
about life; you never know. You just kind of go with the flow. The way I
live life is, I just go with it.
“This year has had a lot
of ups-and-downs and about every situation you can go through in one season, so
I look at it as being pretty entertaining and a lot of fun. I think this
team has been very strong, and the chemistry between Todd Gordon and myself has
been growing. We’ve been making faster and faster cars, and everyone at Penske
Racing is too. Brad and myself have been working great together.
“I think everything is
going as planned at the beginning of the season.”
Logano said despite joining a team that already featured the defending Sprint
Cup Series champion, he felt immediately at home at Penske Racing.
“Anytime you come into a
new company and your teammate has just won the championship, it makes it very hard
to be the lead dog,” he admitted. “But Roger (Penske), Walt (Czarnecki) and
all the guys at Penske Racing have done a great job of making us equal and
valuing my opinion.
“Obviously, if you tell
them what you want and need in your race cars, it’s your job to go out there and
produce after you get that. That’s what we were able to do and that’s what
raises your value up and raises your voice up also when you’re in there
talking.
“That win was big for a
lot of reasons, believe me.”
After being waist-deep
in the Silly Season discussion a year ago, Logano said drivers in that
situation must work hard to retain their focus in the final races of the year.
“Oh yeah, it’s a
distraction,” said Logano. “I can tell you that much. It really sucks, to
be honest with you, so it’s nice to be in the position I’m in now with a great
company and a great sponsor like Shell and Pennzoil. I’ve been through it
in multiple years, and when you’re trying to make the Chase, you’ve got to have
100-percent focus. That’s what you’ve got to have, but, at the same time,
you can’t afford to not think about what your future is and where you’re going
to go and what’s going to happen.
“You have to compromise
and you’re going to take something away. You’re going to take some of
that concentration away from the racing side, to make sure you have a secure
future for the next year. You can’t give up what you’ve got, but you’ve
got to do both somehow, and it’s hard to do both.”
No comments:
Post a Comment