#22-Joey Logano, was a guest of the NFL’s Detroit Lions at OTA practice Tuesday morning, promoting the upcoming Quicken Loans 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway. Logano met members of the team, showed off a Mustang pace car, and even played catch with Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford before taking time to talk racing, football and safety in each sport with media members. Below is a partial transcript.
JOEY LOGANO, #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Fusion – ‘I always like to come see another professional sport and facility and how they train. This facility the Detroit Lions have is really impressive. The way people train and interact and all, you can take something and actually learn from that today and maybe even put it into our NASCAR program.’
WHO DO YOU ROOT FOR IN THE NFL? ‘I am going to make everyone mad but I root for the Patriots because I am from Connecticut. I have been up to their place, but working for Roger Penske you learn to root for Detroit quite a bit.’
HOW IS YOUR YEAR GOING? ‘So far we have come out of the gates really strong. Team Penske did a good job coming up with a good package with good speed and we have been able to use the new NASCAR package to our advantage. We did a good job in the offseason to make sure we came out strong at the beginning of the season and now everybody is starting to get hold of it and our advantage is going away. We have to keep working hard to maintain that advantage we held earlier in the season and make sure we are running the same pace we are now when the Chase starts.’
WHEN YOU SEE A FOOTBALL COLLISION HOW DO YOU EQUATE IT TO WHAT YOU GUYS GO THROUGH? ‘I am glad I am in a race car is what I say. These guys get hit a lot harder than a race car does. We take some big hits in cars but the safety in our sport has improved a lot, not just with the COT car, but the seats, helmets, belts, all of that stuff keeps improving. Not that it doesn’t in football, I think it does there too, but we take a hit maybe once every 15 races or so on average and these guys are taking hits on every play. I feel like my sport is a lot safer. We may look crazy going 200 miles per hour but I would much rather hit the wall at 200 than have a 300 pound linebacker coming at me.’
YOU HAVE HAD A CONCUSSION HAVEN’T YOU? ‘Obviously you get hit enough that you get a little spun out, but that is just part of the sport.’
YOU MENTIONED YOU FEEL SAFER IN YOUR SPORT. THAT MAY SEEM WEIRD TO PEOPLE. WHY DO YOU FEEL THAT WAY? ‘Why do I think it is safer? I have a lot more stuff around me. And the amount of hits you take. Our hits may be pretty brutal but at the same time we have done a lot to our race cars to make them safer. It is the seats, and more. It never changes and NASCAR has a constant program of always being able to move up and test cars and crash cars and try to figure out what we can do to make them safer and make the crush zones crush and if there are parts that need to be stiffer they make them stiff. I don’t think there are as many areas in football to improve on. Obviously you have pads and helmets but you are still going to get hit every time, there are still going to be big guys hitting you and obviously when you get all the adrenaline going those hits don’t become softer. Those guys are big. I think that is a big difference but we are kind of comparing apples to oranges.’(see full transcript at JoeyLogano.com)(6-4-2014)
