Logano on change in NASCAR: "If you sit still, you get passed"

In recent seasons, NASCAR has made some of its biggest shakeups to its Cup Series schedule in decades and took a greater leap forward with the Feb. 6 preseason Busch Light Clash held on a made-from-scratch ¼-mile asphalt oval built inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Another new venue – World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis – will debut this season in Cup at the same time as the introduction of the Next Generation race car, which features some of the biggest technology changes in stock car racing since NASCAR’s inception.

Moving forward

Logano, the 2018 Cup Series champion and member of the board of directors of the new Drivers Advisory Council, credits the collaboration among drivers, teams, NASCAR and owners for the sport’s push forward.

“I think the way the teams are working with NASCAR and the owners and their group and the driver alliance group can help a lot with some of the stuff moving forward,” he said. “I think change is probably the biggest thing.

“If you sit still, you get passed. It is like that on the race track and in life. If you get comfortable because it worked in the past, someone is figuring out how to get better. On top of that, society is just changing and everything is moving along and technology changes.

“If you don’t try to keep up with it you get old and slow. We can’t let that happen. We have to keep moving forward and finding the next thing.”

Pushing through the pandemic

As a prime example of NASCAR’s willingness to think outside the box, Logano credits the sport’s decision to be the first to find a way to restart its season following a shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“That was a huge risk but a huge reward. It worked well and we changed a lot of things because of it,” he said. “We didn’t know we could race without practice. We didn’t know we can race with less people.

“We didn’t know all these things we can do and now we take what we learned there and now we add the people back, finally, which is my favorite part – having sold out grandstands – and we try different things.”

This year’s Daytona 500 sold out grandstand seating in January and earlier this week the track announced the race was a complete sell out, including RV camping, its Fan Zone and hospitality options.

That comes on the heels of a successful Clash race in Los Angeles – the first held away from Daytona since 1981 – that saw more than 50,000 fans in attendance and TV ratings the highest since 2016.

“We have this whole new car that Lord knows what that will bring for us with what we can do with that and having an open mind there. I think honestly that NASCAR has done a great job at recognizing weaknesses and doing something about it,” Logano said.

“The whole industry has really jumped on board with that. Like I said earlier, now we are finally reaping the rewards of a lot of the work that happened behind the doors during COVID and now you see it all coming back and doing good.

“We saw what the Coliseum was. There was so much hype around the unknown and bringing the race to the race fans. We are going to them now, and that is pretty special. We have to keep doing that.”