CUP: Logano Ready To Hit Reset Button In Contract Year

Sprint Cup

CUP: Logano Ready To Hit Reset Button In Contract Year

Joey Logano endured a difficult season in 2011...

Bob Pockrass | http://www.scenedaily.com | Posted January 12, 2012 Daytona Beach, FL

Joey Logano is in a contract year with Joe Gibbs Racing. (Photo: Getty Images)

Joey Logano believes that his Joe Gibbs Racing team needed a change for 2012.

He won’t say that a change at crew chief was necessary – that’s up to team owner, Joe Gibbs. But he felt his team needed a new direction after its miserable 2011 season.

Logano has a new crew chief as Greg Zipadelli left to become competition director at Stewart-Haas Racing and JGR elevated Nationwide Series crew chief Jason Ratcliff to work with Logano.

Entering his fourth season at Gibbs, Logano – who is in the final year of his contract – said he has a different feeling at the start of this season.

“I definitely feel like it’s my team now,” Logano said Wednesday at Daytona International Speedway. “With Jason there, I can voice my opinion and I think we’re all working together very well. We value each other’s opinion a lot and with the accomplishments we have, we respect each other a lot.

“I think it is going to be a very positive change for us. And I think it is a positive change for Zip. It is a good change for him. Every once in a while, you’ve got to hit the reset button and go at it again.”

Logano will need to show what he can do this year if he wants to stay at JGR. He has one career victory but has finishes of 20th, 16th and 24th in the standings after a much-heralded entry into the Sprint Cup Series at 18 years old.

“Every year can be a make-it-or-break-it year,” Logano said. “Last year could be a make-it-or-break-it year for me. You never know. It doesn’t make you drive any different if it’s a make-it-or-break-it year.

“You’re out there to win any race anyway, whether it’s a contract year or not. Obviously this year is a contract year – you better pick it up. I understand that, I see that but it wasn’t like we weren’t trying to do that last year. We made the changes to be able to do that and be able to be better.”

He hopes that he can accomplish great things with Ratcliff, who won a Nationwide Series title with Kyle Busch and an owners title with Busch primarily as the driver. Ratcliff has won 42 Nationwide races, 35 with Gibbs and 34 with Busch as the driver.

But more importantly, Ratcliff worked well with Dave Rogers, who also was a Nationwide crew chief before being elevated to Busch’s crew chief late in the 2009 season.

That should bode well for Ratcliff. He also can relate to Logano, who entered a situation three years ago as the replacement for two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart.

“Tony and Zippy were together all those years – they were like brothers,” J.D. Gibbs said. “There were a lot of fistfights. You’d argue with each other and get over it and move on. With Joey, it took a little bit something different.”

Logano believes that the entire JGR organization will be more cohesive with the addition of Ratcliff and 2011 Sprint Cup championship crew chief Darian Grubb, who is the new crew chief for Denny Hamlin, replacing Mike Ford.

“Dave, Jason and Darian’s personalities are a lot closer and I think the way they are going to work on the cars is a lot closer,” Logano said. “The direction they’re going to go on changes I think is a little bit closer. They all are going to work together a little bit better.

“Before, Denny would have done a different road than I would and Kyle would be a little bit different than us sometimes. We all had different stuff in our cars. This is going to bring us all down the same path.”

JGR had a relatively down year in 2011 with Hamlin squeaking into the Chase and Busch having a strong regular season with four victories before a horrible Chase, finishing 12th in the standings.

“Was our team as strong as it was [in 2010]? No, it wasn’t at all – you can look at Denny almost winning the championship [in 2010] and he barely made the Chase,” Logano said. “That’s when your team – the 20 team, the 11 team, whatever it is – that’s when you guys need to be strong and not fall apart and point fingers or try to protect your own job. That’s when you need to come together as a team and work it out.

“We didn’t do that good enough. That’s why we kept going down the wrong road and never came back. The momentum went down at the beginning of the season after all those wrecks and then I think everyone’s cars got better and ours did not.”

Ratcliff said his time spent in the Nationwide Series working with Busch will help him with Logano, whom he worked with only a few times in the Nationwide Series.

“I’ve been real fortunate to work with Kyle for several years and I learned a lot about the calls that you make throughout a race, the strategy, what it takes to go out and run for championships and things like that,” Ratcliff said. “With Kyle on board, he helped make our program on the Nationwide side and prepare me for now over on the Cup side. I’m really confident in the race team and really confident in Joey.”

And the 21-year-old Logano talks with confidence about 2012. One thing Logano and Zipadelli had argued about was whether Logano was getting roughed up by other drivers on the track.

“When you start at such a young age, you’re different – I was a different person four years ago,” Logano said. “I’ve learned a lot more in the last four years in how to become a bigger man and do this right. It’s hard to get that young kid look away and become someone stronger.

“Being able to start fresh with someone new, that you’re more of an equal with, you’re on the same level and work better together that way.”

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