It would be hard to disagree with calling Joey Logano one of the most improved drivers in the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Heading into 2014, his second year with Team Penske, Logano is already focused on fixing his weaker points.
“I feel like we’ve had the opportunity last year to win five to six races,” Logano said during his first media availability of the new year, Thursday at NASCAR Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway.
“We only capitalized on one, so we can get better at that. I think that’s a big area for us. I think our pit stops, we’re making some changes on the pit crew to make that better. I felt like our cars last year had speed in them.
“I felt like the mile-and-a-half stuff was probably our best. It’s where our strongest suit was. But we were working hard on where our weaker points were, which I felt like were short tracks, and able to work on that stuff.”
Logano said breaking down film of the year can help spur him forward in the pursuit of catching Jimmie Johnson. Logano said he feels confident the No. 22 team can beat him, but they haven’t done it with any degree of regularity as yet.
“You look at football players and teams like that, they’re always studying tapes and studying their competition on how they can get better,” Logano explained. “So the same thing comes down in our sport. We’re going to look at pictures of cars on the racetracks and study race footage, in-car cameras, whatever we can find, we’re going to study it and try to understand what they’re doing inside the car and outside the car to win six championships because I want to get six of them too.”
It’s hard to believe but Logano, only 23, is entering his sixth full season in Sprint Cup. He’s never won multiple races in a season and is coming off making his first Chase. More wins and sustained consistency is the next step in the development for the driver referred to earlier in his career as “Sliced Bread.”
Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.
Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.
On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.
One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.
After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.
The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.
Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.
Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports
“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”
Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.
“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”
As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.
But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.
A block pass by Haiden Deegan led to a series of events that eventually led to Jordon Smith failing to make the Main. – Feld Motor Sports
“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.
“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”
Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.
“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.
“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”
The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.
