Joey Logano says that after winning Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race in Texas, every time someone “defeat me” he “comes ten times harder.”
Pensuke driver Logano sent the #22 Ford in four laps inside Michael McDowell’s #71 Spirit Motorsports Chevrolet to run to lead on the 400.
McDowell crashed just minutes into the race, urging attention, but the real-life champion had rebooted during overtime as he defeated Rothshastain’s Trackhouse Chevrolet in 0.3 seconds.
It was their first win as Logano won his third Cup Series title with Phoenix last year and scored just a week after being disqualified in a race where he lost a nut to the spoiler bracket from Talladega.
At a post-race press conference, Logano said the results at Texas Motor Speedway showed him and Pensk’s ability to bounce back from adversity.
“You start to wonder if you’re going to win for these guys (sponsor of AA races),” he said.
“They have been great partners of Team Pensuke and myself for the past 14 years or so. Yeah, it’s been close and close many times and never entered the victory lane.
“It was special to be able to click once for them and 22.
“After I rebounded last week and got to come back soon, that was a total of 22 ways to do things.
He added: “Next week always has a story. I told my wife last week before I left, I said, we’ll go to win this, that’s exactly how we do it.
“Whenever you kick us, whatever we’re inside us, it feels like we’re back ten times. Like I said today, changing the storyline is great.”
More on the topic, Logano said there is a special motivation to prove that the deniers are wrong after being removed from fifth place at Talladega due to technical infringement.
“Whenever someone says something about you, whether it’s good or bad, I think you can use it as a motive,” he said. “When there’s a negative comment or something like that, you have a tip on your shoulder. Well, I’ll prove you’re wrong. You want that story. That’s cool, right?
“I don’t think I’m trying more in a week than other people, but I think something happens unconsciously. Something happens in the playoffs. Sometimes it happens when someone says something to you.
Logano’s first victory in the season will lift him to ninth in the championship with 288 points, but he still takes over ranked leader William Byron (Hendrick Motorsports) 133 points.