Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Global

Pole-sitter Logano: "I have something to race with this weekend"

Joey Logano was absolutely giddy after topping the speed chart in Happy Hour on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway.

Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford

Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford

Rusty Jarrett / NKP / Motorsport Images

Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford
Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford
Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford
Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford
Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford
Joey Logano, Team Penske, Ford Fusion
Joey Logano, Team Penske, Ford Fusion

With the season he’s endured, that’s understandable.

But after winning the pole for the First Data 500 on Sunday, Logano couldn’t hide his elation.

“Finally,” Logano exclaimed. “It feels real good. What a good car the Shell-Pennzoil team put together. I have something to race with this weekend.”

On the track, Logano has had little to smile about. While the No. 22 Team Penske Ford started the season with eight finishes of sixth or better in the first nine races, Logano and his crew suffered a downward spiral after an encumbered win at Richmond Raceway in April. Logano failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since joining Penske in 2013. That was also the last season that Logano had scored just one victory over 36 races.

Certainly, a victory at Martinsville would turn Logano’s year around. Although this is his fourth pole at the half-mile track, and he's led laps in the last seven races, Logano has never been able to break through and score the win. His strategy for Sunday?

“If you can set your pace, and kind of run your race, the long run comes to you,” Logano said. “There’s a select group of drivers that are really, really good here. And I’m fortunate enough to have at teammate, Brad (Keselowski)—he’s really good here on the long runs. We’re good in different areas. I’m good in qualifying and short runs typically. He’s a long-run car. We can look at what he does, he can look at what we do and we can make each other better.

“I think that’s one of the best things to have in a teammate—when you can learn from each other and make each other better and push each other. It’s a fun project for us to have because we’re both so different at this race track but still we’re able to make things work somehow.”

Finding speed

The pole Logano earned on Sunday was his first since Phoenix in March and just his second this season. For Logano, finding speed in his cars is a relief after the drought he’s experience this year.

“It may not be our best shot for the rest of the season, but it’s our best shot for right now,” Logano said. “And it’s the best shot we’ve had in a long time—well since Talladega. I think it shows where we’re off, when we come to a slower race track and the speed comes back, I think it shows the direction on what area you’re off on. I guess that just kind of verifies some stuff for us.

“We’ll have to find a lot over the next few weeks to be competitive on these mile-and-a-half tracks coming up and even Phoenix. That’s not to say we won’t. I think we can. But this is the best shot we’ve had in a while. It feels really good to win practice. Can you imagine what it would feel like to win a race? Plus, winning here at Martinsville is cool, winning the clock and winning at the place where you get booed would be pretty cool.”

Logano may not be a fan favorite at the .526-mile short track--where Matt Kenseth took revenge in 2015 for an earlier incident at Kansas by pile-driving Logano's Ford into the Turn 1 wall to the cheers of the crowd--but for the driver of the No. 22 Ford, even an unpopular victory would be indescribably sweet.

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Front Row Motorsports will not defect to Toyota
Next article Brad Keselowski wins Stage 1 of Martinsville Cup race

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Global