Victory Lap: Joey Logano

this weekend we're going to Indy. I bring my chapstick every year just to be ready but I haven't

had the moment yet. They see the pictures around the house and they're like huh how's that happen?

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour victory lap. I'm Katelyn Pincey alongside Mamba Smith and we

are so excited to welcome the North Wilkesboro winner Joey Logano to the program. Joey great

to see you and we actually got to interview you a couple of weeks ago and you were very honest

about kind of the ups and downs obviously of the year so far but now that you've crossed

over into the win column how has the whole program rejuvenated? A lot more ups all of a sudden.

Just a nice NASCAR racing for you right like one week you're down and next week you're up and

you just gotta ride up as long as you possibly can and it's nice to have a really really fast

Mustang this weekend that had so much speed and we're able to execute a solid race on top of that

you know the last thing you want is have a car that fast and not win so everything worked out

just perfectly and got a bunch of points which we needed and still need a bunch more so it's a

good start and hopefully we can keep riding that momentum for a while. You were talking about having

a dominant car and if you don't win how that makes you feel I talked to your teammate Ryan Blaney

last week at Echo Park I'm like man if you have a car that good and you don't get it done like

how do you handle that like how if you would have not got it done how hard would you have been

kicking yourself? I don't even like thinking about that. It's horrible I've been there it's like

it feels like just a wasted opportunity because to get a car that good is it's rare right it's

special and you have to make sure you win when you get those ones and I've been on both ends of it

before and you're you're running that last long run and you know you have control of the race but

Denny's right there and you're just waiting for like a caution to come out like 20 to go and it

splits the field up on whether you need to do two tires or four tires or stay out which happened

in the All-Star race at Wilkesboro last year and we lost the race because of it so like you're

just waiting for something like that to happen and we're like gosh it's going to split the strategy

everyone's going to do the opposite of you and that's just how the race is going to play out

but it stayed green we raced it to the end as thank god we worked out again something worth this year.

Denny Hamlin called your performance wildly impressive which it certainly was and we just

saw that footage there of you obviously doing burnout with your son what was that moment like

you brought him in the car celebrating with everybody in your family. That was fun you know

years ago Kevin I think might have been the first one to do it and I remember in Michigan

and Keelan came running out and I thought and at the time Hudson was just a baby and I thought man

that'd be so cool to do that one day like to take your son for a ride in the race car that would be

so cool and I've had the opportunity to do that and Phoenix we won the championship and then so

when I was doing the burnout I came around the back stretch and I seen his little head sticking

out of the fence like oh there's howdy I spun it around and got him um after pops figured out how

to get the window out and all that that was that was funny too once we got all that figured out I

got him in there and either we're going to light him up I'm not going to chug around easy you hang

on bud we're going to go and so we let him back up and get a burnout together and he loved it

I love it too it was a lot of fun. I was standing right there Keelan when when he came around and

we had the camera on Tom and when Tom got the window in Joey was so hard in the throttle

that I thought he was going to run over his own dad. Oh we're glad that you did. I saw him like

I'm out of here. Yeah I gotta go gotta go Joey you were talking about towards the end of this race

you know Denny Hamlin Denny's basically stalking you like he he didn't really let you get any

type of lead but then I was watching something interesting happen the the 35 ends up in front

of you and picks up a couple tenths of speed and uh kind of gave you a hard time there when you're

in those moments and you know that you're racing with maybe someone's teammate or OEM teammate

the nuance to how you get around that situation uh what is going through your mind in that in that

moment? Well I've seen it coming because say he came off a pit road with like 20 lap new

retires so we were already out there for 20 laps he comes out of pit road and so he's faster than us

goes by me and I was like that like when he passed me I was like that's when I really cannot let

afford to let go here and I made it a little hard on him to get by for that reason I thought gosh the

end of the race I think I'm going to be faster in him and I'm going to get stuck because his

teammate is directly behind me what is teammate the guy that pays the bills probably even more than

a teammate right is is there behind me racing for the win like gosh that's going to be a tough one

and it happened exactly the way I thought it would right he got out there and then we started

catching him at the end of the race and I caught him and then he started to just dog him everywhere

I went like he was racing me like he was racing for the win and I was like oh man and then he

reeled me all the way and I'm like you gotta be kidding me I mean it's exactly what I thought was

going to happen um had to use a lot of tire to get around him like I didn't want to use as much

tires I did um eventually was able to do that and and and then somehow get enough gap again after

that but I thought I was going to use up too much trying to get there but eventually I was like I have

to get around him like I don't have an option I can't waste any time Danny was catching me a

couple tenths of lap at that moment um I tried out the new bumper even trying to get around

like that didn't even work he was going so slow and like trying to make sure that he was right

in front of me putt and didn't even move him I'm like oh jeez I'm on the edge of his car right now

so I had to just try to figure something out and eventually get to his outside but uh that's just

I mean it's that's racing right like I mean he he was doing his part it's fine uh you know I mean

we've all been putting spots before and you know he's in one of the spots that you know if he just

let me go I don't know what the conversation like for him is on Monday you know like I don't know

but uh he did his part you know but it was the same thing Riley did his part to try to help

his boss win the race hell of a teammate yeah we I'm glad we got clarification on that yeah

I was curious about that yesterday so um you also talked to us a couple weeks ago about like your

physical fitness and being outside a lot this time of the year because of the heat we saw a lot of

drivers kind of seemed like they were struggling a bit when they got out of their car Sunday night

how are you physically feeling afterwards it was really freaking hot if I'm getting out of something

it was hot the long run that track like it's a pretty physical racetrack I know like

short tracks are way more physical than the mile and a half so you just don't have a straight away

and it's an intense like lap because you're just in the corners a long time but then also you're

getting dogged the whole time you're in traffic the whole time like you're you're mentally

you know trying to get everything in order and execute perfectly uh while the pressure's on so

that kind of raises your heart rate as well and and it's hot like I mean it is smoking inside the

car so yeah even when I got out of the car like it was two hours later in Victor Lance I can't

stop sweating you know like she did get it's easy to get dehydrated and uh I got to the point I was

a little dehydrated and your body just aches the next day and everything's sore but I'm back now

I'm back in the game he's back he's ready to go you know uh something that happened at the end of

the race you're about and you're in Victor Lane and the guy that finished second Denny Hammond

reaches over the pit wall and you guys have a dap up moment and uh I not that I'm surprised

but it was I think a lot of people were the you know you guys have a interesting relationship

and rivalry on track um but I thought that was really cool and interesting for everyone to see

yeah I think you know Denny and I you know as different of humans that we are like we're very

different on the way we do a lot of things there's a mutual respect I think for what we do on the

racetrack um and also what we do off the racetrack you know the the what he's done to grow his business

and his race team is pretty amazing to me um and then also I think we both have an interest of

growing our sport like I think in the same way I want to leave our sport in better shape than it

was when I got here or at least try to right I don't know if I can do that but I'm going to try

he has that same attitude where he is trying to improve our sport and I think with all that

combined with each other like we have some things in common and we have a mutual respect for each

other and and when we can duke it out like that at the end uh it was pretty fun right I mean a

couple couple of the veterans of the sport at this point right going back and back and forth right

there is was pretty fun to do the tweet Caitlin was the best the what's that the tweet the tweet

from Denny that's just short track racing that's really how I say it though you know

every time you say freaking I kind of laugh a little bit

both you and Denny obviously fierce competitors but I think about your whole team you know Paul

Wolfe you you guys just seem to be able to find another gear and these like clutch high pressure

moments how are you guys able to do that always I mean I think it's just experience right and

then it's got where our bread and butter is then for for years is you know when the playoffs came

around the pressure was on and our team just stays pretty even keeled and just kind of

handles it really well and and right now the pressure is on us right we got to get one into

the chase and two way ahead of where we are in points right now to have a shot at one of this

things so you know with the pressures on us it's fine that's good it usually gets the most of us

obviously it's been tough this year right but we're at that point of the year where hopefully we

can get some things rolling we got some good tracks we get some momentum built up and you

have a few more great weekends you can be right back in this thing so we are at a point where

we still can recover it's hard to do but we can still get there so we keep our foot in the ass

and keep going you talk about pressure this weekend we're going to indy the boss's house

rp's place does that bring any more pressure I mean it's nice to have a win in the bank now

going into indy but I know the whole company really wants to do well at this weekend yeah

absolutely I mean indy's special no matter what team you drive for and whatever driver you are

like indy is one of them that you always dream of winning at when your boss owns a racetrack

multiply that by like 10 you just want to win this one so bad and and I look at last year

and like dang it we were in position to win that race uh as we came off pit road right in front of

baba we were in a good spot and he and we had a flat tire and he went on to win the race and it's

so close it's been the one that's been haunting me for years uh that I just dreamed of the moment

of kissing the brakes you know so I bring my chapstick every year just to be ready but I haven't

had the moment yet well you've had some runner-up finishes there and so he mentioned the brickyard

and when you look at the next stretch of races we only have five to go before the post season how

do you feel like these tracks line up for team 22 there's some great tracks ahead of us um you know

indy for one I feel pretty good about um Iowa I feel okay about but then when you think about

Richmond and Loudon those tracks uh coming up are really exciting so um you know I feel like

obviously North Wolfsboro is one of our best race tracks we capitalized on that Richmond I feel like

is a track we can be equally as good at and Loudon we've been really good at the last couple years

as well so um you know I look forward to those tracks the most but I also think of the other

ones I think we can win it at those ones as well joy I keep telling it I told everybody a few weeks

ago I said you know who's hanging around it's the 22 don't don't let them hang around if you got

them down you better keep them down because if they get they get you know get a little momentum

it's going to be a bulldog fight all the way to the end that's right it would be a hell of a comeback

story at this point if we're able to pull this off but there's definitely a chance you know and if

we can like I said do what we've been doing the last few weeks where we've been making some progress

we're scoring points again we're getting stage points we're finishing in the top 10

now we're you know we see a win here right like all of a sudden some consistency starts building

we can start getting back to where we belong and where we know to be how to how to be there but it

just it's taken a long time and the recovery factor this year is more challenging than it's

been in the past with this you know new chase format so um or the old chase format I should say

so this is we can get there the road is going to be bumpy it's going to be tough but we can get there

so when you were with us a few weeks ago we talked about the fact that you now have foster

children and that they hadn't had a chance to see you win yet now they have so what was their reaction

when I don't know if they were with you at the tracker if they were at home but what did they

say like dad's a winner I know I was there at home with my wife and Hudson kind of last minute

wrote up with my dad uh so he got to go up there but there was a lot of regrets on Monday morning

when I got home they were like oh we should have went oh dang it they don't know that I could win

they haven't seen that yet first time we've become foster parents it's been a little rough this year

you know so they don't think they've seen the they see the pictures around the house and they're like

how's that happen you know what was that like yeah like dad once you get to a certain age you

just not win anymore houses like what's the deal yeah so I told him before I left Sunday

morning to left the house I said I got a chance today it's looking pretty good that's awesome well

I'm sure they'll be with you for a win soon and we're very happy for you congratulations again Joey

on the victory at North Wilkesboro it's awesome to see that we should need the best of luck as we

continue on with the regular season all right thank you very much we'll see you soon good luck champ

Ford Mustang

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