Catchfence

2009 Raybestos Rookie Contender

Joey Logano and Scott Speed participated in a press conference this morning at Pocono Raceway. Logano leads Scott Speed by 23 points (203-180) in the Raybestos Rookie standings entering the Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500.

SCOTT SPEED, No. 82 RED BULL TOYOTA: “Especially in the Cup racing, how you get them running throughout the practice and throughout the weekend how you show up with ‘em as far as the setups concerned is obviously very important. But not only learning about that and what the cars needs to feel like in practice to be for the race, I’m still learning an enormous amount of just racing sort of skill. Racing on an oval in these big heavy cars is something completely different than I’ve ever done my whole life. It’s amazing every weekend as we get more competitive and start running in the top-20, start running in a competitive position, how much I’m learning in those situations. I think my race craft and my feel for the car is what’s getting better and better.”

HOW DO YOU COMPARE THE LEARNING CURVE HERE IN NASCAR VERSUS YOUR FIRST SEASON IN FORMULA ONE? “It’s completely different because in Formula One I went into it sort of like Joey is. I’ve done it my whole life. It was what was natural to me so the learning process was much longer from 11 years old until I finally made it there. And this year the learning curve is so much faster. You get a lot more laps during the weekend. Even though they’ve done away with testing for us we still do so many la ps during the weekend and in the race. In four hours it’s amazing what you can do [smiles]. Because of that and because you can see a lot of tracks twice a year and you do so many laps you’re in a situation where you can learn it let’s say a shorter amount of time I think than the open wheel stuff. But nonetheless it’s something completely new and certainly very challenging.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 20 THE HOME DEPOT TOYOTA: WHAT IS THE BIGGEST THING THAT YOU’VE LEARNED HERE IN THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES? “It’s kind of like what Scott said, just getting used to these race cars. It’s probably the biggest thing is just getting a feel for how these things drive and what you need ‘em to do to go fast. Between all that you get to the racetrack you have a lot of things to figure out, especially if it’s your first time you have to figure out how to get around these places. This [Pocono] is probably the hardest place so far that we’ve went to this year the first time to get hang of. It’s so different, never been here before, so that was probably one of tougher ones [smiles]. Just getting used to the car, knowing what you want in the car and practice you don’t really know, if you’ve never raced here you don’t know what you need in your race car to go fast until you are around 43 other cars. And you’re running around like, oh man, I wish I didn’t worry about that section in practice and worked on this part. That’s part of being a Raybestos Rookie and you figure that stuff out as you go along.”

HOW DIFFICULT HAS IT BEEN TO LEARN HOW TO DO ALL THE MEDIA AND SPONSOR STUFF OUTSIDE OF THE CAR? “I don’t think that’s been a big deal to me I think because I’ve been introduced to it slowly as I went up through the ranks. It wasn’t just like a light switching and all of a sudden, bam, everybody wants to talk to me. I think when I started running Nationwide Series at first that kind of sent a big buzz out and I was talking to a lot of people then so I think I was kind of getting used to it as I was going up to it.”

SPEED: COMMENT ON MICHAEL SCHUMACHER RETURNING TO FORMULA ONE AT 40. IS THAT A LITTLE OLD? “Is he a little old? Well one I don’t know if that’s been officially announced or not. I’ve definitely heard from reliable sources it’s pretty true but I mean that would be pretty amazing. It would certainly save the sport I think in my mind, definitely make it more interesting because I’ve never seen in the last century of him running he’s never been in a car that wasn’t the best one in the field and clearly right now Ferrari is not. It says a lot for him to have the confidence to even attempt it. I guess he’s got nothing to lose because he hasn’t been in the sport for so long and he’s as old as he is but everyone is still going to expect a lot from him.”

AN ANNOUNCMENT ABOUT SCHUMACHER WAS POSTED ON JAYSKI. “I’ve heard is announced at a lot of places too but him actually getting in a car or not. I cross my fingers that he does.”

COMMENT ON DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FORMULA ONE FANS VERSUS NASCAR FANS. FORMULA ONE FANS APPEAR TO BE MORE ELITEST THAN NASCAR FANS. “You know honestly I think from a fan’s perspective I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily true. It is a little bit maybe but not as much as you would think. I think the sport in general is much more like that. There’s a lot more wealth and sort of high class people within Formula One where NASCAR is a lot more blue collar, a lot more how I grew up and a lot more nice to be around for sure.”

LOGANO: HAVE YOUR EXPECTATIONS CHANGED THIS SEASON? WHAT WERE YOUR EXPECTATIONS AT THE START OF THIS SEASON? “As far as all that I didn’t really have big expectations coming into it after running a few races last year and struggled big-time. So I was like survive this and get it better every weekend. Now I feel like I’m a lot closer to where I need to be. We’re getting close to top-15, top-20 every race and I think we made one big step from what we had in the beginning of the season and I think we’ve got one more big step to go to be right where we need to be. I’m hoping to make that step later on this season when you go to these places the second time like here and run better than you did the first time. That’s kind of the big goal right now is just to do better than you did the first time that you came to these racetracks.”

WHAT MADE THIS TRACK THE MOST DIFFICULT? “Have you seen this place yet [laughs]? It’s just cause it’s so different. Turn 1 took me forever to figure out and what I needed to do. That was probably the biggest thing. Everywhere else we kind of came close. It’s more typical I thought. It’s tough and a littl e bit is a lot here. If you’re three tenths off you can pick that up pretty quick. That’s pretty much one corner. If you screw up a little bit off of two or any corner you have such a long straightaway for all that to go backwards, just like Indy. You’ve got to get off the corners good here to make it up all the way down the straightaway. It seems if you screw up a little bit off the corner you’ve got the whole straightaway to think about how much you screwed up. That’s probably why it makes this place this place a little bit tougher.”

HOW MUCH HAS GREG ZIPADELLI HELPED YOU MATURE AS YOU’RE HITTING THESE TRACKS FOR THE SECOND TIME? HOW MUCH ARE YOU LEARNING FROM DENNY HAMLIN AND KYLE BUSCH? ARE THEY ABLE TO HELP YOU? “I pick everyone’s brain that I possibly can on anything. Zippy has been a big deal to get me to this point, just working with each other I think is probably the biggest thing that helped. Just being around each other more, going to all these races I think our relationship is a lot better than what it was a few races ago. I think we’re picking it up. I think the whole team is going to get better as you keep running better I think everyone is going to get in a better mood and all that. I think things are going good right now. You know as far as talking to Denny and Kyle, it s the same deal. I remember the last time that I was here Denny took me laps around in the pace car showing me different things about the place but for the most part a lot of these things you’ve just got to learn on your own. You can’t teach people a lot of things about racing. A lot of stuff you’ve just got to go out there and race and figure it out.”

SPEED: AS THE SEASON HAS GONE ON ARE THERE ONE OR TWO GUYS THAT MAYBE RACED YOU REALLY HARD AT THE START OF THE SEASON THAT NOW YOU FEEL ARE MORE COMFORTABLE AROUND YOU? CAN YOU TELL A DIFFERENCE AT ALL? “I think everyone [laughs]. There’s no question when you race people clean they race you clean back you know. When you give people respect out there you get it back for sure. There’s no question about that. And certainly when you start you start with no respect.”

LOGANO: “I think the funny part is the further back you go into the field the harder everyone races. I’d say 11th, 12th on back everyone is racing really hard and you’re not giving up. As you get closer to the top-10 there’s a lot more point by, here you take it and we’ll come back. There’s a lot more give and take up front so it’s pretty funny how that all works.”

SPEED: COMMENT ON WHAT TO DO TO MAKE THE RACING BETTER AT SONOMA. “I have no idea [smiles]. For us you just look at the size of the car and the track itself is very tight and you’re always doing something. You’re never straight anywhere to make anything happen. The track is, for lack of a better word, small. But it’s still a fun track. There is passing there, absolutely. It’s not like you can’t get anything done. It’s very challenging for us. It’s got a lot of elevation and it’s a very different type of track than Watkins Glen and I think it adds to the vast difference of everywhere we go in the sport. We not only have two road courses but we have two road courses that are completely different from each other so I think it’s a good thing.”

LOGANO: COMMENT ON RACING HARD WITH JUAN PABLO MONTOYA IN THE FINAL LAPS AT INDY. “I think as far as Indy me and Juan were just racing real hard at the end of the race. That’s a typical deal. The straightaways are so long you’re side drafting each other. I’d pull away and try to get away from him, he’s trying to come down and pull me back again. I think that was just kind of a typical deal as far as racing real hard trying to go for the spot. I didn’t see nothing wrong with it, no. I mean that was racing at the end of the race, makes it hard, makes it a lot of fun. Like Scott said earlier you gain respect by giving respect. The more you race these guys the more you’re around ‘em there’s a lot of give and take in the beginning of these races. At the end there’s none. You wouldn’t expect to have any. I don’t expect to come behind a car with 10 laps to go and get a point by. You’re going to have to race. That’s what I would expect.

COMMENT ON EARNING RESPCT FROM FANS. WHAT DO YOU WANT FANS TO LIKE YOU FOR AS YOU START TO REALLY ESTABLISH YOURSELF? “I think as far as the season from when it started to have as fans that I have coming into this deal with the Home Depot behind me and the 20 car fans to help me out. We got voted into the All-Star race which I thought was the coolest thing for a Raybestos Rookie I thought. That was neat to have that many fans out there and for them sticking with me through the first part of the season. Now we’re getting bett er and hopefully we can keep gaining more.”

Raybestos® brand brake and chassis parts are produced by affiliated companies in Affinia’s Global Brake and Chassis Group, the leading manufacturer of braking systems and chassis parts in the transportation industry. The brake line includes everything from brake drums to rotors, pads, shoes and hydraulic parts, while the chassis line features tie rods, ball points, idler arms and sway bar links. Raybestos brand braking and chassis systems are also the only systems used by NASCAR’s Joe Gibbs Racing in competition. For more information about Raybestos brakes, visit Raybestos.com. For more information on Raybestos Chassis visit RaybestosChassis.com

- Camp & Associates, Inc., for Raybestos, Press Release