Victory Interview with Joey Logano from NASCAR Nationwide Series at KS
I will be at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana Friday and Sunday. If you will be there, give me a shout. I will be twittering for @Nationwidenns Attached is the audio file of the interview with race champ Joey Logano along with a transcript and a link to all the pictures we shot this weekend http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationwide/sets/72157622396724425/ Nancy Smeltzer Nationwide Insurance Communication Consultant (614) 249-4491 FAX: (614) 677-6802 Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nancy501 Follow Nationwide on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nationwidenns Joey Logano NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion Interview – Kansas Speedway Saturday Kyle Busch absolutely dominated the 29th Nationwide Series race of the season at Kansas Speedway, leading 173 of the 200 laps. But for the fourth time this year his teammate Joey Logano passed him late in the event and in this case just four laps from the finish and went on to grab the checkered flag. Joey Logano: Yeah, it’s cool you know, it’s cool that the team cars could run up front like that and run one two and race hard and race clean like that and have a lot of fun. That’s the cool part and Kyle Bush is one of the best drivers out there. To be out there running with him, it’s a blast. Now don’t try telling that to Busch because it wasn’t a whole lot of fun when the teenage sensation flew by in the GameStop Toyota. Kyle Busch: I knew he started working the top side in order to start get some momentum built up. He was better up there. I didn’t feel like I needed to go up there, I felt like I was strong on the bottom, I ran the bottom all day long and felt like I could hold him off but he got a good run through three and four and got to my outside before I could shut the door on him. He got by me. As soon as he broke the plane it’s over. Logano: Didn’t think we had anything for Kyle and it came out of no where. I was like alright, I’ll just drive as hard as I can and pretty much just hope for the best with all you got and dug down deep as I can and I remember Dave Rogers came over the radio and he goes how hungry are you and I came back and said I’m starving. That was everything I had, if it wasn’t good enough, if we lost, it wasn’t going to be because of a lack of effort from my part or the team. In 2008 Kyle Busch captured 10 victories which tied the all times single season record held by Sam Ard. So the Las Vegas native then set a goal to break that mark this season. He does have six checkered flags but now has 10 second place finishes including five runner-ups since his last trip to victory lane in race 19 at Gateway. Busch: You know we’re looking for wins, I’d love to break that win record but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen this year, I’m running out of races. Unfortunately I’ll have to wait another year, maybe when I’m not racing for points and can go from broke instead of having to bide my time and keep my car underneath me and not race too hard at the end. On the plus side Busch has now lead 2,226 laps in 2009 and that does break the single season record Ard set back in 1984. Finishing third for the ninth time this year it was Brad Keselowski. Brad Keselowski: It was probably one of the best driving mile and a half cars I’ve ever had. It just drove good, it had pretty good speed, the 18 and 20 just had so much more speed than the rest of the field. Even when our cars are perfect they’re not good enough, that’s frustrating. Coming home forth it was Kevin Harvick and after wrecking in qualifying Greg Biffle came from the back of the pack to finish fifth. Greg Biffle: We’re really happy about it, we thought we might have had something right there for the 18 right there at the end and got our fender knocked in on that restart, got really aggressive there towards the end and these are really aero sensitive still and knocked that left front fender in and then we fell back to fifth. That’s about all we had. Six to 10 at the end were Justin Allgaier, Carl Edwards, Scott Speed, Clint Bowyer and Reed Sorenson. Then 11 to 15 it was Jason Leffler, Scott Wimmer, Jason Keller, Brian Scott and Steve Wallace. As for the Nationwide Series title fight Kyle Busch has widened his lead over Carl Edwards to 245 points with only six races to go. Brad Keselowski is third minus 307. The Kansas Lottery 300 win was a big one for Joey Logano coming a week after rolling over eight times in the cup race at Dover. Logano: I didn’t think it was a big deal at all. Coming into today I knew a lot of people did and a lot of people were wondering how it was going to be and this should put it all to rest I would hope. You got that right. A full set of the pictures taken at the Kansas Speedway can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationwide/sets/72157622396724425/ The Nationwide Series will return this week to the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana. Look for the audio interview following Copart 300. And don’t forget, Nationwide’s Media Team will be Twittering from the Auto Club Speedway. You can follow the Team’s whereabouts on the track on Twitter ( http://twitter.com/Nationwidenns). If there is a picture of someone or something you would like to see trackside, send your request to http://twitter.com/Nationwidenns. The team will try its best to get the shot. Pictures will be posted at http://www.twitpic.com/photos/nationwide