MOTORSPORT AMERICA PHOTO
JOEY LOGANO AND RYAN BLANEY POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT WERE
YOU MISSING TONIGHT? “I got damage early in the race, like lap three.
Briscoe tried to get in and we wheel-hopped and it kind of jumped the
front of my car up and ripped the steering wheel right out of my hands
and knocked the toe out about half-an-inch and then it just plowed the
whole first run of the race. That puts you an adjustment behind because
in the 100 lap break you’re sitting there saying, ‘OK, I was really
tight but was that because my toe was out a lot, or am I really that
tight?’ So that makes it a challenging adjustment and really just kind
of put us one adjustment behind. I wish I didn’t get that damage. I
think I could have maybe been in contention there. We had decent track
position. I was trying to manage where I was before the 100 lap break so
I could still be in the hunt. We just had a couple of mediocre restarts
where I couldn’t launch as good and let a couple cars down in front of
me, and then the long haul there I was able to get a couple cars there
at the end of the race. I was trying to position myself to where I was
in the second row and you never know what happens on a late race restart
at a track like this, so it was just trying to say semi close and hope
for a caution, which there never was, but, overall, I would say the race
was pretty interesting.”
RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Great Lakes Flooring Ford Mustang Dark Horse
– DID YOU USE UP TOO MUCH TO GET TO SECOND BECAUSE YOU SEEMED TO FADE
AT THE END? “No. I got to 10th before the break and I kind of got to
the top five relatively quick – a couple of restarts went my way –
and by the time I got to second I saved a pretty good bit even to get to
second because I knew it might go the whole way, and then it was just
kind of like a game between the 9 and myself like who can save more
right-rear tire. I just didn’t quite have enough to lean on there at
the end. I started pushing like with 25 to go and I just didn’t have
enough. I was like, ‘Uh oh.’ I needed some help by lappers and I
just never really could get there. I kind of just didn’t have enough
to lean on, but it was fun coming from the back and just not quite
having enough, but it’s always fun when you can move forward like
that.”
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED – WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE ATMOSPHERE
TONIGHT? “It was really, really good. I thought the pre-race ceremony
was pretty cool. The fans being right there. It’s what Bowman Gray is,
right? You’ve got the fans heckling you and saying whatever they want
and saying your number one in two different ways, so that’s what
Bowman Gray was built off of. I don’t know if you got the boos I got,
but, overall, I would say it was successful. You look at when fans are
cheering and screaming and those type of things, drivers brands are
being exposed to everybody, which is great. Everyone has a favorite or
not and they’re passionate about it and when you get everyone this
close, I mean, you look at yesterday. People hung out for the modified
race all the way until practice and the heat races. It was packed
yesterday and tonight was standing room only, so, from that standpoint,
the atmosphere was successful.”
RYAN BLANEY CONTINUED – “I agree with Joey. From the crowd yesterday
that hung out for three hours from the modifieds to when we first got
out on the track is a lot of commitment, and there was a lot of energy
on the frontstretch before we got going there and that’s what it’s
all about. It was really, really cool to be here and I’m happy that it
was a good show for everybody. I’m looking forward to hopefully coming
back next year. I don’t see why you wouldn’t come back, so I hope
everyone had a good time.”
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED – HOW FUN WAS THIS WEEKEND? “I didn’t win,
so I didn’t have that much fun. I don’t really do it for fun at this
point in my career, but it went better than I thought it could possibly
go. You look at what the modified race was and they’re wrecking the
crap out of each other, and you saw some heat races were very
aggressive, but I think you got a little bit of everything here. You had
the restarts where everyone was bottled up and I’d say bulldogging
around. That’s kind of what it looked like for a while – a lot of
contact and it’s very entertaining. I sat there and watched the LCQ
and I was like, ‘This is an entertaining race. It’s pretty good.’
I’d say as the race went on you seen the top lane kind of come in a
little bit and you could start to work some crossovers and stuff. Tire
wear was real. I mean, at the end there I don’t think anyone was
getting wide-open, not even close probably so that was fun. I can’t
remember the last time I went around a racetrack and I didn’t get
wide-open. It reminded me a little bit of the old days with the old car,
which was a lot of fun to have that tire wear and that fall off to where
you really have to manage your car and be a smart racer. We don’t have
that everywhere, so it was nice to see that Goodyear could bring that
tire here.”
RYAN BLANEY CONTINUED – DID YOUR TIRES JUST LOSE GRIP OR WAS CHASE WAS
ABLE TO SAVE HIS TO BE FASTER AT THE END? “Yeah, I think he just had
better drive off than me that whole last run. I turned better and he had
better drive off, so it was kind of a trade off, I feel like. Honestly,
I felt like our cars were kind of evenly matched. My car was better in
one area and he car was better in another, but I felt like if you just
swapped our two cars, I don’t think we would have passed each other.
If I was in front of him or if he was in front of me, I think we were
pretty evenly matched, but when I started to go I just didn’t have
enough right rear. I was not gonna make that pass and couldn’t just
bulldog into him and get chased out of here with pitchforks, so when it
was time to go I just didn’t quite have enough. I could turn really
good, but I paid the penalty on exit to where he could just keep the
power down a little bit longer and the right rears seemed to wear out
more than right fronts, so it just helped him out a little bit more at
the end.”
AREN’T YOU SUPPOSED TO GET RUN OUT OF HERE WITH PITCHFORKS? “I
don’t know what you like, but that’s not something I want to do
(laughing).”
DO YOU FEEL IT’S IMPERATIVE TO COME BACK HERE AGAIN, OR DO YOU WAIT A
FEW YEARS AND THEN COME BACK? “There’s gonna be just as many people
here next year if you come back as there was tonight. I don’t think it
would lose any of its luster.”
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED – “From what I hear, they pack this place out
every weekend without the star power of Cup guys. The people who come
here are just race fans. They just like racing, and the other thing too
is remember it’s not a huge stadium, so you pack it out and it looks
good and the energy is real and it’s not like you have this ginormous
stadium and you get half or three quarters of it full. This is like
standing room only is a special feel. It’s hard to get the ticket,
which people want what they can’t have. A lot of people probably
watched this on TV and weren’t able to get the ticket here because
there’s a limited quantity. Maybe next year they get the opportunity
to get tickets. Maybe they’ll say, ‘Hey, I need to get on it and
when they start selling them I need to be on it and get them.’
There’s a little bit to be said about that as well, but on the same
breath I would say it’s very important for us to move things around.
We’ve seen the success of our sport moving to new racetracks and I’m
a big fan of going to new places and bringing the racetrack to the fans
that don’t typically get to see us because it’s so hard for a lot of
people to travel a long ways to see our races, so going to new places is
huge for our sport and we’ve done that over the last five, six years.
We’ve added new racetracks quite often, so I think that’s
successful. Doing the same thing eventually gets stale, but I don’t
think that’s gonna happen here anytime soon.”
RYAN BLANEY CONTINUED – CAN YOU TALK AGAIN ABOUT THE ATMOSPHERE
TONIGHT? DID YOU FEEL THAT HARDCORE VIBE TONIGHT? “Yeah, definitely.
It was neat when you do intros on the frontstretch and you park your car
the fans are right there. It was neat to hear them cheering and
supporting you. There aren’t a lot of places we go where they’re
that close and that passionate, maybe a lot of them for whatever reason
everyone wants to have their opinion heard here that’s in the stands,
and that’s awesome to me, whether good or bad, it’s awesome that
they’re there and they’re wanting to interact and that is a hardcore
race fan. I didn’t see any birds tonight by the fans, luckily. My
eyesight isn’t as good, so I might have been shot some, but I just
think it was cool and it was cool for the fans to stick around for a
good bit when we were doing interviews on the frontstretch after the
race. You could tell they were excited to be here and they were excited
for us to come and put on a heck of a show and they appreciated the race
and things like that, so they’re hardcore race fans and you can’t
beat that anywhere else. They’ve been like that here for 90 years, so
you’ll have that, which is good.”
JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED – “Like I said earlier, it was great. I think
you look at whether it was yesterday, whether it was here in person,
which was great, or watching it on TV was great. There’s not a bad
seat in the house, which is awesome, and I think the fans build off of
each other. As they sit next to each other in that tight of quarters,
I’m sure they started jawing back and forth about who their favorite
driver is and everyone starts cheering louder and louder. We have such a
unique sport because when you go to a basketball game, there’s a home
team and the majority roots for one team. In our sport, there are 40 of
us out there, so it’s pretty wild to see the differences and all that
is displayed in driver intros. As long as they’re making noise. They
make noise for me, so that’s good. It goes both ways, but it’s noise
and that’s always good.”
AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Freightliner Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I
thought we did a good job of making our Freightliner Ford Mustang Dark
Horse better from Saturday night and even from the first 100 laps to the
second 100 laps. I can’t really complain. I thought we had speed to
race in the top five. We made a lot of passes under green on that long
run and felt like we had a reasonable car and kept the tires under it.
These quarter mile events have been a struggle for me the last four
years, so it’s really good progress and a solid showing to start the
season for the 2 car.”
JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse –
“It was a lot of fun. I thought the guys did a really good job making
the car better and adjusting on it from practice and the heat races to
give me a really good car for the feature. Honestly, I felt like we had
some more potential there if things would have went a little different,
but, overall, I’m really happy with it. Obviously, the goal is to come
here and make the race, so to do that and get a decent finish in our
first time out it was a lot of fun.”
RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Fastenall Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We made
gains on the break. I think we were running 20th and struggling to be
there, and made good adjustments and got ourselves back to 11th. We
didn’t really have any other opportunities to go forward, so at the
end of the day I’m happy with positive changes and just ready to move
forward to the Duels and the big show.”
WAS THIS EVENT A SUCCESS? “I was really shocked that the racing
wasn’t chaos, which is great. It speaks volumes. I think NASCAR, the
event at Bowman Gray and this city, that was unreal. Driver intros and
the enthusiasm and everything about this place. I’m disappointed a
Ford didn’t win, but, at the same time I’m happy to be part of this
event.”