NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: NASCAR Banking 500 only from Bank of America

Topics:  NASCAR Banking 500 only from Bank of America

Joey Logano
October 17, 2009

CONCORD, NORTH CAROLINA

THE MODERATOR: Our top finishing Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate is Joey Logano. He finished fifth tonight, and he drives the No. 20, the Home Depot Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Joey, congratulations on a very solid finish. How were you able to keep it up there all evening long?
JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, we had a -- I think we started, what, 12th, and plugged along, got in the Top 10 and felt like we had a pretty good car. And then the first pit stop I go right by my pit stall. I was like, oh, well, we lost a lot of track position there, went back to about 32nd, 33rd, and from there just had to start battling back. Didn't seem like we could catch a break.
We tried to go for some pit strategy with two tires and everyone would do it, or some guys would do two tires and it would work for them and four tires weren't making up as much as you wanted to. Catching cautions the right way, felt like I was passing a car or able to pass a couple cars when the caution come out and at the restart.
I felt like things like that weren't helping our track position all day, but to come down at the end and get a top 5 out of it, that was huge for the whole Home Depot team. These guys deserve to be in the top 5 every week, so it's a big deal for me and for them.

Q. Can you just talk about those final laps and battling Jeff there, especially down the last five? He was saying that he really enjoyed the race, it was a lot of fun, and he could tell you were really trying to race him hard and race him clean?
JOEY LOGANO: Yeah, I was trying everything I can. Me and Bowyer, we were running him down. I think both of us were faster. I think I was a little bit better than Bowyer. I was able to get by Bowyer and try to get to Gordon there, and he's a smart race car driver. He knew where my car was better than his, and he made sure he put his car there so I couldn't get by him. I had to try to work the bottom, and it's just hard to get a run off the bottom. He knows what it takes to keep people behind him, and we raced real hard. He got on my door, and I was chasing down on the bottom and trying to do everything I could do to pass him.
But I had a blast. To race against a world-class champion race car driver like that, running door-to-door for a top 5 finish or fourth place, it was a bunch of fun. You know, it's still really cool to me. I'm still a rookie to this whole deal, and to be racing Jeff Gordon, I never thought that day would happen.