FORT WORTH, Tex. — While other members of the NASCAR community planned to attend Saturday night’s NCAA basketball semifinals at nearby AT&T Stadium in North Texas, Joey Logano wasn’t one of them.
“I just know racing,” Logano said. “I don’t really care about any other sport too much. I’m here to race and win a race. Whatever they want to do shooting hoops, they can keep on going with that. They don’t need me there.
“I’m focused in on trying to win a race. I feel like, if I leave the race track, I get distracted and if I don’t run well, that’s going to be the reason why so I’m not going to give myself an opportunity to have an excuse.”
Logano has adopted that attitude to the fullest extent since joining Team Penske before the 2013 season.
“I’ve probably taken that to the extreme over the last two years,” Logano said. “If you’re looking to be the best, you’ve got to work harder than everybody. You’ve got to figure out how to be better. I’m in the garage until it closes all the time, just to be with the guys. If something comes up, I can help them with some answers or help them with some setup stuff.
“The more I can learn about the race car and what direction they’re going with changes and why they’re doing it, the better information I can feed back to them and whether it’s the right or wrong answer for our car. The more involved I am, the better I feel about it — and it limits that opportunity to have an excuse at the end of the race for me.”
SHORT STROKES
Suffering from what he thought was a 24-hour bug, Austin Dillon had brother Ty Dillon take some laps in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet during Saturday morning’s practice, just in case he might need a relief driver. …
Kurt Busch paced Saturday’s practice with a lap at 194.630 mph — in a backup car. Last Sunday’s winner at Martinsville Speedway blew a left rear tire and smacked the wall without about 10 minutes left in Friday’s opening practice, forcing the team to roll out the backup.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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