"Some people are kind of born a certain way" - Joey Logano opens up on his big-game, big-player mentality
Joey Logano started his playoff campaign in the best way possible by winning at Atlanta. The win, Logano's second of the season, ensured it booked his place in the next round of the playoffs.
Following his win, Logano was asked during a press conference about his ability to deliver in the big moments. The American driver claimed he doesn't know what exactly that thing is as he said:
"I think some people are kind of born a certain way, like very competitive people," Logano said. [8:10]
The 2022 Cup champion said that this characterstic sometimes bites him as much as it helps him as he further described:
"I feel like for whatever reason there’s always another gear in there. I try to reach it every race, but it just seems like the Playoffs seem to work for us as a team. I wouldn’t say it’s just me, right? Our whole team really does a good job at thriving in these scenarios. Talked a little bit earlier today about their work ethic, their experience level, this race team. When we go into the Playoffs, it doesn’t really affect us much." [8:25]
Logano further spoke about how sometimes pressure can either crack a driver's composure after which they fall apart, or sometimes it makes them perform better. For him and the #22 team, the 2x Cup champion claimed he has learned how to handle the pressure because of his experience and achievements.
Having said that, Logano pointed towards the long road ahead to Phoenix.
"There’s a long ways to go in this Playoffs. I don’t want to get stuck on saying, We won the first one, it’s going to be a cake from here. It’s not going to be easy from here. This is just an ability to breathe for two weeks as we try to get some Playoff points," he added. [9:13]
Joey Logano opens up on kickstarting his playoffs with a statement win
Ahead of the start of the playoffs, Joey Logano had said that playoffs are the time when the #22 team starts delivering. During the press-conference, he was asked about what it is that gives him this confidence to step up his game in the playoffs.
Logano said that it isn't anything in particular that he and his team do. He remarked that last sesaon he wasn't able to step it up in the playoffs, when he failed to defend his 2022 Cup championship and collected just one win for the entire season.
"To be able to fire off your first race of the Playoffs with a statement win, it’s key. We all talked about how wild card this round could be. We knew that the Penske cars would be strong on the superspeedway style type racetracks. We’ve been all year long. Unfortunately we’ve been caught up in every possible wreck on these type of tracks," Logano said. [00:50]
The #22 driver driver further touched on how he and his teammate Ryan Blaney, both had a good race considering the #12 driver scored "a ton of points", as well as Austin Cindric.
Joey Logano deemed the playoff race at Atlanta as a special one for Team Penske as all three teams set themselves up "pretty good" for the next round of the playoffs.