Joey Logano just might have some fresh rivals he hasn’t encountered before in his decorated NASCAR career.
The pole winner for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Straight Talk Wireless 500 is jousting a bit this weekend with three NTT IndyCar Series Team Penske colleagues as the organization celebrates its 60th anniversary with both major series on the Phoenix Raceway mile oval for a rare “Desert Double.”
Logano qualified fastest Saturday at Avondale, Arizona, in the No. 22 Ford at 26.561 seconds and 135.537 mph to lead three Penske drivers in the top five. Teammate Austin Cindric, in the No. 2 entry, was on his heels in second place at 26.731, 134.675. Ryan Blaney, in the No. 12 Ford, is fifth. That came just before all three IndyCar Penske drivers started their Good Ranchers 250 in the top five, with David Malukas on the pole, No. 2 Josef Newgarden next to him on the front row, and Scott McLaughlin in the No. 5 starting slot.
Sporting livery commemorating McLaughlin’s Bathurst 1000 victory that was among a record 18 triumphs in the 2019 Supercars season, Logano said, “There’s a little rivalry there. I don’t know if we really talked about it, but I think internally all of us want to deliver some wins this weekend. Our paint scheme for this weekend is also really special. That was really big for his career, but also really big for Team Penske. And that car won 18 races that year. It was a boatload. So he’s definitely done a lot in that paint job. It’s neat to continue some of that success, at least in qualifying.”
Logano emphasized that many Team Penske marketing partners are on hand and that offers extra motivation to perform well: “You want to make sure you have a good running. There’s times where everybody’s there and you win, and there’s really nothing better than that. So everybody’s here and it’s nice to show that all the Team Penske cars are fast. Our three cars, the three Indy cars… all looked solid yesterday in practice, as well. So now it’s about executing the race, which is the hard part.”
As for his qualifying performance, Logano said he “felt like if I didn’t screw up, the speed was in the car. I just had to make sure I got all of it out of it. I can tell you the car was really good. I don’t know if I can take much credit. The car drove really well and just kind of took what it gave me.
“It’s funny because it doesn’t drive nice, but this pace was there—which is encouraging for tomorrow, because it still feels like there’s some areas to get better. I didn’t have to do anything crazy to make speed. It just happened.”
He wasn’t so bold as to predict he would earn the pole position Saturday.
“You never know anymore,” Logano said. “These days you just don’t know. You just go out there and you go as fast as you can, and you don’t know if you’re going to be 30th or first. It’s really hard to say before the run starts. [Cindric] had a pretty good lap going out early and still was able to qualify thinking the top five there. So that’s pretty impressive to do it as early as he did.”
Logano, winner of 37 races already, had boss Roger Penske, who celebrated his birthday February 20, on his mind—that and the good fortune he has for being associated for a decade and half with the man everyone calls “The Captain.”
He said, “As a driver for him or just even someone just on the team, those are the people you want to be around—somebody that’s going to do something the right way, that’s going to do it in a professional way, but is also very competitive and wants to win no matter what it is: business, racing, you name it. He’s going to want to be the best at it. And you can imagine as a competitor, no matter what your position is on a team, you want to be with the best, right? You can’t soar like an Eagle when you’re working with turkeys—and he’s an eagle.”
After Newgarden won the IndyCar Good Ranchers 250, Logano got another surge of motivation. Said the NASCAR top qualifier, “We don’t want to hear the trash talk at the shop at Mooresville, N.C., about them winning and us not.”
Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 500 is set for 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
