Joey Logano knew it was coming. It was inevitable.
No way could he return to Martinsville in the Chase for the Sprint Cup and not face a question about 2015's incident with Matt Kenseth.
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So there it was, during Friday's first media session. The only surprise, maybe, was that it wasn't the first questioned asked.
Logano's answer wasn't a surprise.
"You're never going to erase it from your mind," Logano said of the fateful bit of retribution. "I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to say that.
"But I will say that I don't focus on it. If I focus on it, that's a distraction of what my main goal is which is to win, not think about what happened last year. If I can use it to motivate me, I'm going to use that to help me win, but that's going to be it."
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All smiles for @joeylogano as his team switches over to qualifying trim. #AskMRN #NASCAR #TheChase pic.twitter.com/a7Zjt2QwXX
— Motor Racing Network (@MRNRadio) October 28, 2016
Qualifying at Martinsville was scheduled to begin at 4:40 p.m. ET. Sunday's race starts at 1:13 p.m. ET.
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Fresh off his victory at Talladega, established in the Chase for the Sprint Cup's Round of 8 for the second consecutive year, Logano has his mind made up.
His goal at Martinsville is no different that it was at Talladega, than it will be at Texas or Phoenix or Homestead-Miami.
Win.
"Winning here at Martinsville might be the biggest win of the year," Logano said. "It might be what wins you a championship if you think about it. Being in this Round of 8 if you win, you're obviously going to Homestead. You know you're not finishing worse than fourth in points and it gives you the ability to think about nothing but Homestead for two weeks while other teams have to think about the next two races to get themselves in.
"You've got to get there before you can win the championship, so I think it's a pretty big advantage to win this one. This is a tough race, obviously. We've yet to win here. We've come close a few times, so we'll just keep doing what we know how to do. We keep making constant progress at this race track as the 22 team, so I'm excited about that. We'll get out there and see what we're made out of in a little bit."
| Cup drivers' speeds in Friday's first Martinsville practice | ||
|---|---|---|
| Driver | Speed | Time |
| Denny Hamlin | 98.058 | 19.311 |
| Joey Logano | 98.053 | 19.312 |
| Kyle Busch | 97.896 | 19.343 |
| Jimmie Johnson | 97.82 | 19.358 |
| Matt Kenseth | 97.684 | 19.385 |
| Carl Edwards | 97.633 | 19.395 |
| Kevin Harvick | 97.608 | 19.400 |
| Kurt Busch | 97.392 | 19.443 |
Speed is no problem for Logano, who won pole position the past three races at Martinsville. He did 100.201 mph, a track record, in May 2014.
But speed isn't a primary consideration. How can it be on a half-mile track that is essentially two drag strips connected by semicircles? Or, a high-speed traffic jam at rush hour?
Logano was third among drivers in Friday's practice. His focus was to get a feel for his Team Penske Ford on a track that is vastly different than Talladega. Cup drivers this week go from a restrictor-plate superspeedway to a flat, short, crowded throwback.
Kenseth also is in the Chase, so Logano must be more concerned about beating him than paying him back.
No thought of 2015 at all? Well …
"If I can use it to motivate me, I'm going to use that to help me win," Logano said, "but that's going to be it."
Here's the more important memory of last year: Logano dominated Martinsville and might well have won. It might well have been his fourth consecutive victory in the Chase. It might well have set him up to win the Cup.
Dwell on that.
"Just because we haven't won here yet we don't look at it as a bad racetrack for us," Logano said. "It's been a pretty good racetrack for us, we just haven't broke through for the victory and gotten that clock yet."
Yeah, the winner's grandfather clock, one of the more prized trophies in Cup racing.
"I really would like to have that thing. It looks super-cool."
History will help Logano get his hands on the timepiece.
"We've been close before," he said. "We really work off our notes here. This track is one of those tracks where once you kind of figure it out and what it is, it seems that just continues every time you're here and that's why I think you see a lot of people here with so many wins."
Logano can't turn back time, but he can make it stand still. All it takes is leading the last lap on Sunday.