Team Penske driver looks to build off breakout 2014 campaign
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Team: Team Penske No. 22 Ford
Rank in final 2014 standings: Fourth
Wins: Five (Texas Motor Speedway in April, Richmond International Raceway in April, Bristol Motor Speedway in August, New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September and Kansas Speedway in October)
Year in photos: Recap Logano’s 2014 season
Strides: Logano nearly tripled his career win total in the Sprint Cup Series with five victories in just his second season with Team Penske (giving him eight for his career), while his 16 top-five and 22 top-10 marks were career bests as well.
In addition to his wins, Logano earned his first top-five finishes at Chicago (4th), Indianapolis (5th) and Las Vegas (4th). On the qualifying front, he earned one pole and finished the year with a 9.8 average starting position, fourth best for the series. He established track qualifying records at Martinsville and Phoenix.
In just his second appearance in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Logano and the No. 22 team made it all the way to the final round. And although he finished fourth, the experience was educational.
“Throughout the Chase I thought we did great,” Logano said. “We got all the way there, did a perfect job until Homestead. And I think as a driver, I learned the way I needed to handle the pressure a little bit better. … I feel like I learned a lot in how I can help my team handle the pressure. … How I can relieve the stress and the tension and nerves. Everyone’s like, ‘Oh my god, we’re on the verge of winning the championship.’ It’s nice to be able to understand what I need to do as a leader to lead my team and get them to calm down a little bit.”
Setbacks: The restrictor-plate tracks of Daytona and Talladega haven’t been kind to Logano, and the ’14 season was no different as he failed to log a top-10 finish in any of the four events.
But the biggest problem came at the most inopportune time — in the season-ending race at Homestead with the title on the line. Troubles on pit road cost Logano a tremendous amount of track position late in the race, leaving him too far back and with too little time to try and work his way back to the front.
Quoteworthy: “It’s easy just to say I want to win a championship but what do you need to do it? That’s the important part. That’s where the teamwork comes into play. We all sit down and we say this is what we need, we prioritize it and we go to the boss man (team owner Roger Penske) and say, ‘Here’s what we need.’ Hopefully, we catch him on the right day.”
MORE: Logano’s Penske teammate Keselowski hits track for first test of 2015
What’s next: As impressive as Logano and the No 22 team were in ’14, he knows there’s room for improvement. But the makeup of the group bodes well for continued success.
“The coolest thing I like about my team is that there’s not one leader,” he said. “I don’t lead the team, Todd doesn’t lead the team … we all do it together and I think that’s important. … I drive the car and put in my two cents where I feel like I need to. I’m never going to make a decision without input from Todd and I feel like he’ll never make a decision without me.”
With NASCAR’s ’15 rules package taking away horsepower and downforce, Logano offered a one-word description for the change.
“Loose,” he said.
Which could be a good thing, he said, “as long as I’m not as loose as everyone else.
“Obviously the horsepower being taken away is going to be interesting … I think making sure (the folks at) Roush Yates Engines and all of us really work together to understand what RPMs we’re going to be at, where we need to make our peak power … it changes everything, it’s not just put a tapered spacer on and let ‘er rip. It changes the whole build of that motor and is a lot to develop there.
“Lower RPM is going to be interesting … when you put all of it together, it’s a lot of changes … we’ve got a lot of work to do over the offseason without testing.”
MORE: See how Logano did in his various paint schemes in 2014