February 17, 2019 | By Lee Spencer

Logano comfortable in his new role as champion

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Daytona 500 practice has ended and Daniel Suarez is picking Joey Logano’s brain outside of the No. 22 Team Penske garage stall at Daytona International Speedway. 

 

A crowd has gathered. FOXSports is waiting to do a live shot. But the conversation continues. 

 

Logano has been in Suarez’s shoes. The new guy on the team. A different car to race. The 27-year-old driver, who is starting his third season on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup circuit could have gone to any of his Stewart-Haas Racing teammates or another competitor in the Ford camp. 

 

But Suarez came to Logano, the winner of Thursday night’s second Gander RV Duel and the defending Cup champion. Logano is more than happy to oblige. He’d rather have Suarez working with him than against him. The 28-year-old Team Penske driver has always been willing to offer a helping hand—on and off the track. 

 

After Logano finishes his interview with FOX, a throng of fans follows the driver to his transporter, soliciting autographs and offering congratulations on a successful title run. 

 

Is Logano used to the accolades yet? 

 

“It’s nice to walk around down here and everyone says, ‘Hey Champ,’ instead of ‘Hey man,’” Logano says with a chuckle. “It’s pretty cool. I think it’s great. What fuels our sport is the fans. That’s what’s most important at the end of the day. It’s fun. I’m enjoying every bit of this whole thing.

 

“I remind myself all of the time that (winning the championship) was last year. You still get some of the cool factor stuff that carries over to this season. But right now, we’re past champions. That’s what we are. And we have to start all over again from where we were at the end of last year.”

 

Well, not exactly. Picking up where Logano and the No. 22 Team Penske crew left off last year is more like it. In his first points race of the season—the Gander RV Duel 2—Logano drove to his first win in the qualifier and found himself celebrating in Victory Lane once again.

 

“Yeah, and the Clash was a good run for us,” said Logano, who finished third—the top Ford entry—in the season-opening exhibition event. “Then in the Duel I was able to have a great finish there to show what our car’s got in it and what our team’s got to be able to make that pass there at the end and solidify a heat race win. That was cool.

 

“Now we have to go get that 500 win. That’s the big one. That’s the one that matters the most.”

 

Logano, who won the Great American Race in 2015, feels comfortable in his car. After just four laps in Happy Hour, the No. 22 crew wrapped up for the day. 

 

“Our car is stable,” Logano said. “It’s driving good. It’s got speed. I feel like I’m in as good of shape as we’ve ever been to make a good run at this thing. I feel great.

 

“All you can do is keep yourself towards the front as best as possible. Play a smart race and put yourself in the position for the end of it. If something happens somewhere in there, you’ve got to roll with the punches. You just have to go with it. And whatever it is, you adjust. At this point, we have a bullet in the chamber that has a good enough shot to win.”

 

While Logano describes his strategy, his spotter and secret weapon, T.J. Majors, enters the transporter. Majors, who was the eyes in the sky for Dale Earnhardt Jr., for 15 seasons before teaming with Logano in 2018, flashes his phone with number "3.14" on the screen. It’s the average finish the pair has shared at Daytona and Talladega in the races where Logano wasn’t swept up in other competitors' wrecks last year.

 

“T.J. is a great spotter—a spotter that I had my eyes on for a long time and wanted to join our race team,” Logano said. “I listened to him a lot. I would go up top and listen to him, because I wanted to learn. I was like, ‘I want him on my side.’ When Junior retired, that was my chance, and I was able to grab him.

 

“It’s fun, because I had my style of speedway racing, and he has his style of racing or what he thinks works the best. It was fun to just hear, ‘Here’s what I think,’ and ‘Here’s what you think,’ and put our notes together and blend all that. It’s nice to have someone to talk to. It puts us on the same page to where, when we’re making decisions on the racetrack, he knows what I need to hear. He knows what I’m looking to do. And you’re on that same wavelength. 

 

“That’s hard to do. It’s hard to get somebody that really understands that. You can get people that you trust. You can get someone that you enjoy being around and have a friendship. But to find someone that really gets what you’re trying to do on the race track is really rare.”