Page 19 - 2019_NPPG_digital copy

stubborn and stuck to our ways. We felt like, ‘This is what worked our shot (to get to the Championship 4), maybe our only shot.
last year (in 2016) and we almost won the championship then.’ So, we had to make it happen.”
… But then you go to the next season and you get spanked. We
needed to take a step back and say, ‘Okay, we need to think Wallace said he thinks the unapologetic, hard-driving approach
things over.’ Logano has adopted is just what the sport needs in an era when
many of the drivers are close friends away from the track.
“The rebound started maybe four or five races before the playoffs
(in 2017), and it’s been a slow but steady climb back to the top. “One thing about him is that he doesn’t appear to care much
It’s just so crazy to think about. We dropped like an elevator and about what the other drivers think of him and he sure hates to
we took the flight of stairs back to the top, man. lose,” Wallace said. “You saw that in the playoffs. He didn’t apolo-
gize for it. He just kept saying he did what he felt he had to do.
“To be able to do that, and fighting together with the whole race
team – not just the two of us in myself and Todd – means a lot. “Some drivers these days think too much about whether or not
You make a little gain here, a little gain here, a little gain there. they’re doing the fair thing; he just goes for it. That might cause
And all of a sudden, we’re champions the next year. What a some ill will in the garage and maybe will get him taken out him-
fight.” self somewhere down the line, but you have to admire him for liv-
ing in and seizing the moment when it’s there. It’s an old-school
There were skirmishes along the way, including one with Truex mentality somewhat lacking in the sport these days.”
at Martinsville in last year’s playoffs when Logano used the old-
school bump-and-run to move Truex out of the way for the win Wallace said it’s hard to believe Logano is only 28 years old. He
that punched his ticket into the Championship 4. Truex was furi- won’t turn 29 until this May. And that, Wallace added, is likely bad
ous, stating afterward of Logano, “He may have won the battle, news for Logano’s fellow Cup competitors.
but he ain’t winning the damn war. I’m not going to let him win it.”
“Joey is what I would call a young veteran,” Wallace added. “He’s
True to his new and more successful form, Logano did not issue incredibly young, yet he’s been racing so long that I expect him to
an apology. just keep getting better like a Kyle Busch has done and continues
to do. You look at Joey Logano and you’re like, ‘Oh, he’s been
“I’m a hard racer,” he told reporters. “I don’t think that’s a secret here forever.’ Then you look up how old he is and you’re like,
to anyone – and we are here to win a championship. … This was ‘Really, he’s only 28?’… “His best very well may be yet to come.”

THE OFFICIAL NASCAR 2018 PREVIEW & PRESS GUIDE 19