Joey Logano Interview: 'I'm Not Cool With Not Winning'

SB Nation's driver interview series is back in 2011 – with 12 all new questions. Up first is Joe Gibbs Racing's Joey Logano. We sat down with Logano at Daytona International Speedway.
SBN: Joey, you're the guinea pig for the first "12 Questions" of the year because I know you won't bite my head off in case there's a bad question.
JL: Sounds good. Fire away.
SBN: OK, my first question is--
JL: That's a terrible question! (Laughs)
SBN: Very funny. Anyway, every driver has races they feel like they should have won but didn't. Which one bugs you the most?
JL: I think the one everyone remembers the most is the most recent one that got away. For me, it was the Nationwide race at Chicago last year. I re-started on the inside and got beat (by Kyle Busch).
That was the most recent one that got away where I felt like it was my fault. I think the ones the driver remembers the most are the ones he himself let go more than if the team did.
You've got to be able to put it in the past and say, 'The heck with it.' It bothers you for a little bit, but a couple weeks later, you're off going again, so it's no big deal.
SBN: Who do you think is the most underrated driver in NASCAR?
JL: Hmm. Let me think (Thinks for awhile). I can't really give you a good answer on that one.
You get credit for it if you're good. I think you guys (media) do all right with that. You guys recognize when someone is running good, and when someone's not. Especially when someone's not. (Laughs)
SBN: If you could pick any teammates aside from the ones you have now – manufacturer or sponsor conflicts aside – who would you pick?
JL: There's a few out there, I guess. I mean, I grew up with David Ragan – so that'd be cool. I get along with Kurt Busch. I'd like to be teammates with Jimmie Johnson, that'd be alright with me (laughs).
Obviously, you want someone who is really good. You want someone who can help you and your whole team. But you want to be able to get along with them, too.
And I'm alright with that lately! Everybody likes me lately, so that's good.
SBN: When you retire someday, what do you want your retirement story to say about you?
JL: Well, you want race wins. You gotta have a championship, too. Wins are cool, but championships are way, way cool.
And you want to be known as a successful, good, clean racer.
SBN: So being a clean driver is important to you?
JL: Yeah! But not while getting walked on, obviously. Maybe somewhere in the middle. Just about anyone in this series has had to do that if they've gotten this far.
But you know, you just want to be known as a successful, good person and a good racer who has won a lot of stuff.
SBN: Which driver did you most want to be like when you were growing up?
JL: I was a big Mark Martin fan. Mark Martin and Jeff Gordon were the two guys I watched the most growing up. I had all their gear. Those were my guys. It's cool I race against them now.
SBN: What appealed to you about those guys?
JL: When you're six or seven years old, you really don't have a good reason, you know? I guess I liked Jeff Gordon because he was young, and I was a kid. Maybe that's the same thing I've got going on as far as the kid fan base for me. And Mark was just a random pick for me – it's crazy how it all turned out with him later on, too.
SBN: Drivers are experts at the 'race after the race' – getting out of the track early. What's a memorable postrace escape for you?
JL: It's pretty much a race all the time. But for me, I fly with the team, so when I race to the airport, I have to wait for all the rest of the guys anyway. So it doesn't really matter. We usually end up taking dirt roads and bombing around, but it's all normal for me now. I won't even look up now. I guess we usually make a couple people mad, but that's part of it.
SBN: So where's the hardest track to get out of?
JL: Texas is pretty bad. Atlanta is terrible...real bad. And Charlotte is terrible! I can never get out of Charlotte. I don't even try to get out of there anymore. I just stay in my motorhome.
SBN: What famous person haven't you met yet who you really want to meet?
JL: Taylor Swift.
SBN: Really? Is your girlfriend, Sabrina, going to get mad if I write that?
JL: Sabrina? No, no. She wants to meet her worse than me! (Laughs)
SBN: Which type of season would you rather have from last year: Jamie McMurray's 2010 season, where you win Daytona and the Brickyard; or Jeff Gordon's 2010, where you don't win a race but run up front all year long and make the Chase?
JL: That's a tough question, because either way, you're going to be disappointed about something – either not making the Chase or not winning a race.
It could be worse with either one of them. Winning the 500, the Brickyard and Charlotte is pretty frickin' cool. I think I'd rather have that than make the Chase and not win a race.
Of course, this year (with the new rules), you'd get both.
SBN: If you could switch lives with an athlete from a different sport, who would it be?
JL: Well, I can't ever see myself as a football player. I'm just not a big football fan.
I was thinking of (NHL star Alexander) Ovechkin. Yeah, I'll go with Ovechkin.
SBN: Really? Would you grow the little facial hair fuzz he has?
JL: Oh yeah! Hell yeah! (Laughs) He's a badass. He's pretty funny...he's a good dude.
SBN: How different is your personality inside the car and outside the car?
JL: Pretty different. But it's not even 'in the car' and 'out of the car,' it's really 'away from the racetrack' and 'at the racetrack.'
I'm pretty much a goofball away from the track. I like joking around a lot. But at the track, I get serious pretty quickly – about a lot of things.
I'm one of the more serious ones on the racetrack, I think. I don't joke around a whole lot on the radio.
I did joke back with Jimmie the other day. I was pushing Jimmie in the Shootout. And my spotter comes on and says (imitating deep voice), 'Jimmie just said you're really driving the son of a gun, and good job.' So I radioed back and said, 'Well, I guess you should tell him he's pretty good, too.' (Laughs) Like, he hasn't really done much in his career yet, but he's alright.
You know what I think it is? When you're running good – and the more comfortable you are – the more you start lightening up. I'm more comfortable lately on the Nationwide side, so I joke around there a little more, I guess.
SBN: Imagine for a second that you could be the healthy version of Brian Vickers in 2010 – taking a year off in the middle of your career, knowing you had a ride waiting for you when you came back. Minus the blood clots, of course, would you do it?
JL: No. Uh-uh. I haven't been doing it long enough to say I'd want to do that. I can barely go through an offseason while people are going crazy, so forget half a year – while other people are racing? No way.
The good thing about the offseason is nobody else is racing, either, so you can't really get mad. But watching these races on TV without being included in them would be really, really, really hard.
I don't know how he was able to do it. I talked to him about it the other day – I don't know how the heck he did it.
SBN: Every driver wants to win. But what's your motivation to win so badly? Your family? Yourself? Your team?
JL: I think you're just born with it. You just want to win. I'm just naturally a competitive guy. I just want to go out and win races.
Obviously, you want to do good for your team and your sponsors – that's just a little extra – but when it comes down to it, I want to win for myself.
Even outside of racing – it doesn't matter what it is – I'm not cool with not winning. When I play with my friends, I'm actually a bad winner. Oh, I'm a terrible winner. I'll rub it in your face all day long if I beat you. I hate it, too – when I get beat, I know I'm going to get it back, and it sucks! (Laughs)
SBN: Would you rather win the championship with a dramatic last-lap pass at Homestead, or would you rather have it clinched by the time you got there?
JL: Well, you'd rather have it wrapped up – because that makes it a lot easier for you. That's like winning a race by a straightaway – you expect for the last 15 laps that you're going to win.
But when you pass him off the last corner and you're side-by-side and you're barely going to win, that's a totally different win – and it's cool.
As a fan, that's cool. And when you're driving the car? It's really, really neat to do that.