Ford Racing wins third race of 2014 as Logano takes Texas checkered flag

Joey Logano’s win is his second with Ford Racing and fourth of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career. He extends the season-opening streak of different winners to seven and joins fellow Ford drivers Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards in that group.

Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford

Photo by: Michael C. Johnson

The win is Ford’s 621st all-time series victory and the 31st by Penske Racing with Ford.

JOEY LOGANO – No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion

VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – “It feels good to be back in Victory Lane, the Chase, I’m stoked.”

TRACK CONDITIONS CHANGED A LOT AND YOU STAYED WITH IT. “I felt very confident about this race. For some reason I told Todd Gordon I said, ‘We’re gonna win this week,’ and I was mad when we didn’t get the pole, but I felt like we had a car that could win this thing today. At the beginning we didn’t, and then Todd and the guys made good adjustments and had good stops all day. And that one longer run I came through and was able to drive up to fifth and get some cautions to be able to get our track position up towards the front. Clean air means everything, so, heck yeah.”

WHAT ABOUT BEING THE SEVENTH DIFFERENT WINNER TO START THE YEAR? “It’s been a heck of a season so far. I feel like the Shell/Pennzoil could have been to victory lane a couple times so far, and we’re finally here. I feel like we gave away a couple already this season, so this car is fast. We’re here to be a force all year. I’m so excited I can’t even speak right now. I’m stoked. It’s super-cool. Texas Motor Speedway is one of the coolest race tracks. The first time I came here I got my butt handed to me really bad, so to win at this track means a lot.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI – No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion – “Joey was just awesome today. He had a great car and did a great job. It was a very strange start, but this 2 team kept working on the car and got it fixed under that first green/yellow and got us to where we were in pretty raceable shape. We just needed a little bit more for the 22, but had a really good day going all the way until the end. That last caution was a shame. I was just trying to get a little too much on pit road and wanted to get us out front to be able to win the race and tried a little too hard.”

YOU SAID YOU WERE TRYING TO GET SOME BACK ON PIT ROAD? “Yeah, a normal pit road deal. We’re in it for wins. We’re not in it for finishing second. Second or 15th is the same for us, so you’ve got to go for the win.”

WHAT DID YOU THINK AT THE START. DID YOU SEE THE HOOD POP UP? WERE YOU WONDERING WHAT HAPPENED? “I was definitely wondering what happened. I knew it was the jet dryer that caused it, but it was one of those freak deals.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 Give Kids a Smile Ford Fusion – “We just have to keep getting our cars better. We’re just not where the other guys are yet, so we’ve got to keep getting better. I feel better, but it seems every week we’ve got one car that is up there. We’ll keep working on it, but this is a step in the right direction from the 16. I think we’re still a little ways off from the rest of the guys.”

ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Eckrich Ford Fusion – “The car was loose all day. Our intermediate track program is still not where we want it to be, but this was a good improvement. We hung in the Top-15 all day, and hopefully, a 12th-place finish will help us in the points.”

Ford Racing