Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. To take the green flag on the 17th year of this series, three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano has the pole position for the eighth straight season. This interview has been edited and condensed, but the full version is available on the \u201c12 Questions Podcast.\u201d<\/p>\n
1. Do you typically arrive for things early, late or on time \u2014 and why?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m early for everything. For one, I can\u2019t stand people who are late because I feel like it\u2019s disrespectful, so I don\u2019t want to be that guy. I don\u2019t want anyone ever waiting on me. I stress out about it, if I\u2019m being honest. I think, \u201cWhat if I get in a traffic jam or something happens and I\u2019m late?\u201d So I just get there early, and that\u2019s OK. I can do something while I wait.<\/p>\n
You\u2019d rather inconvenience yourself than somebody else.<\/p>\n
One hundred percent. That\u2019s the right thing to do, in my opinion. When someone starts showing up late, it pisses me off, and I think \u201cThis person is disrespecting everybody here and thinks they\u2019re better than everybody else.\u201d That\u2019s just a douche canoe move, you know? I don\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n
2. What is the pettiest thing that annoys you during a race weekend?<\/p>\n
Sometimes the traffic flow leaving the racetrack bothers me. The (traffic pattern) could be a lot better leaving some of the races. I\u2019m like, \u201cThis would be a lot better if I can just turn here. I wouldn\u2019t be holding anybody up. What are we accomplishing by doing this?\u201d<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0What is something you\u2019ve learned to stop explaining to people?<\/p>\n
Well, I don\u2019t have to explain the playoffs anymore, do I? So I will stop doing that.<\/p>\n
You were the defender of it before in some ways.<\/p>\n
I mean, I only defended it because I liked it. But I like this, too. It\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n
4. If you could go back to the early days of your career before you reached NASCAR, what is one different decision you wish you had made?<\/p>\n
Nothing. It all led to where I am. Sure, it\u2019s easy to look back like and say \u201cYou made this mistake and that was dumb,\u201d but I learned from it, so why would I change it? Did I say stuff that I shouldn\u2019t have said? Sure, I learned from it. Did I make bad moves? Sure. Everybody has. But I don\u2019t think I would change it. It\u2019s made me who I am, and I\u2019m in a pretty good spot. I\u2019m alright with where I\u2019m at.<\/p>\n
5. What is it like to be in a debrief after a bad race?<\/p>\n
(Laughs) It\u2019s no fun. You\u2019ve just got to relive the misery one more time. Think about how if you have a bad race, it\u2019s a long 400 or 500 miles, and you just want it to be over when you get out of the car. But you\u2019ve got to figure out why it was a bad race; otherwise you have more bad races, so you\u2019ve got to go through it.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not fun. Like Monday morning you walk in the shop, it\u2019s like \u201cUgh, yesterday sucked.\u201d But it sucked for everybody there. It\u2019s not just me, right? We\u2019ve all just got to figure out where we were bad, and we have to talk about it. You have to have the hard conversations. I call that the dirty work. You\u2019ve got to do the dirty work, right? Like nobody wants to do the dirty work, but you have to do it.<\/p>\n
6. This year, I\u2019m doing two different wild card questions, one about the present and one about the past. So the wild card question about the present is: You went bald all the way in the offseason and started shaving your head. What\u2019s it been like? Are you happy with it? Are you happy with the reaction? <\/p>\n
The temperature change was the biggest thing. Not only when you go outside, but when you go to sleep at night. I\u2019m way colder than I used to be. But I\u2019m good. It just needs to get the suntan because at first it\u2019s like, \u201cOh, that is white.\u201d (Laughs) So it takes a minute to get that right. But I kind of like it. I\u2019m good with it. The beanie game has stepped up.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll tell you what my daughter told me the other day. We tell our kids if you don\u2019t brush your teeth, your teeth will fall out. So my daughter, she\u2019s almost four, and she comes up to me: \u201cDaddy, did you not brush your hair? Is that why it all fell out?\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m like \u201cThat\u2019s it, honey. Brush your hair. And your teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n
7. As for the wild card question about the past, I wanted to ask about the incident with Tony Stewart when he got mad at you at Fontana in 2013. Interestingly enough, the move he was mad about these days seems hardly controversial or even worth a discussion, let alone a fight. It seems commonplace and that\u2019s how all of you race these days, correct?<\/p>\n
Yes, that would be mild in today\u2019s world. That\u2019s what so crazy about it: I was the aggressive guy at that time. I was blocking, I was making moves, doing all this stuff. And the guys who had been there for a long time, they didn\u2019t like that. And that\u2019s where we started to butt heads.<\/p>\n
But now the whole field is that way. The whole field. We used to be surprised if someone went three-wide on a restart, right? Like, \u201cOh man, someone went three-wide!\u201d Now four-wide is a big deal and three-wide is like \u201cEh.\u201d Blocks are all over the place now and the racing has changed to where I\u2019m not the most aggressive guy out there anymore. The timing of where I slid into this whole thing was a little bit off.<\/p>\n
I was surprised about it when he came up all mad at me. I was like, \u201cWhat did I do? What are you upset about?\u201d But those were the days when if you were faster than the person, they were expected to let you go; just roll over on a straightaway and let you go. And then you were expected to do the same thing back.<\/p>\n
Where I was like: \u201cI mean, let\u2019s just race. You try to hold me off and I\u2019ll try to pass you. That\u2019s how we do it.\u201d No one else was that way yet.<\/p>\n
8. If you could get any driver\u2019s helmet in the history of motorsports, whose would you like to have?<\/p>\n
Mario Andretti. I just think he\u2019s the coolest race car driver in the world. He\u2019s the most B.A. race car driver ever.<\/p>\n
9. When things are not going well, do you prefer people to leave you alone or check in on you?<\/p>\n
I always have people around me. I\u2019m not alone hardly ever, if I\u2019m being honest. I like it that way. I don\u2019t want to be alone when things are going bad or when they\u2019re going good. It takes an army.<\/p>\n
10. What is something about yourself that would surprise people who think they \u201cknow\u201d you? <\/p>\n
I like to grow whatever I can. Business-wise, if I can get involved in something, I\u2019m all in. I like to be part of that stuff and prove I\u2019m not a one-trick pony. Prove to people I can do more than one thing. That\u2019s in my DNA of some sort.<\/p>\n
Why do you think that is?<\/p>\n
I want to prove it to myself more than other people. And I can bring a lot to other things. I have so much great experience in this sport, and NASCAR is elite. All the people in here are so good. If you can take that into other places? Gosh, you can win in anything.<\/p>\n
11. What is something you laugh about now that was absolutely not funny at the time?<\/p>\n
Back when I was 15, I was running Pro Cup, and Roush was supplying the pit crew for us. They had this brand new pit car with this cool color-changing paint on it.<\/p>\n
I went to drive it in, and I pushed the clutch in \u2014 and my foot got wedged behind the brake pedal but on top of the clutch. It got stuck and I couldn\u2019t get my foot out, and I panicked. I drove it through the pit stall, over the tires stacked in front of it, it hit the tires, popped up and into the fence, broke the fence and knocked the radiator out of the car.<\/p>\n
I was so embarrassed and I thought, \u201cThis is the end of my racing career right here.\u201d Roush was in the same building it is now, and I had to push this car back in there. It was just like \u201cUgh.\u201d It\u2019s funny now, but gosh, it took awhile for it to be funny.<\/p>\n
12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next person. I ended last season with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and this is the question he wanted to ask you: If you could go back to any NASCAR season and compete in a competitive car, what past year would you want to experience and why?<\/p>\n
I grew up watching the mid-\u201990s, early 2000s, so that\u2019s the era I would like. Just because that was when I fell in love with the sport. That\u2019s when the sport was at its absolute peak. And all the guys I watched, it would be cool to race against them \u2014 Terry Labonte and all the guys like that.<\/p>\n
So probably either that or racing on the beach (in the \u201940s and \u201950s). The problem is the risk factor is much higher. The further you go back, the higher risk you have. So how far back do you really want to go? But I do think racing on the beach would\u2019ve been really neat, at least be there to see it one time.<\/p>\n
Do you have a question I can ask the next person?<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your perfect All-Star Race format? What would you do and where would you do it? And what would you do with the current track (Dover)?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. To take the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,12716,634,82],"class_list":["post-465808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}