Texas II: Joey Logano preview

Joey Logano:

"Texas is a place that I've always really struggled at until this past race in the spring. We turned the corner there and figured some stuff out, and that showed by winning the pole and coming home second. But this is a track that I really want to get a win at for my sponsor GameStop. This is a really important race for them and they always bring a lot of people to the track, so there isn't much more we could do to show them our appreciation then to get the No. 20 GameStop Toyota into Victory Lane on Saturday.

"Texas is a really cool track. It is similar in shape and size to Charlotte, which is one of my better tracks, but they are vastly different too. Charlotte is much more sensitive and takes a little more finesse then Texas. Texas is more an 'all out' type of track. But you still really need to have a good handle on the car to get it to do what you want there. I know we are taking our best car to the track, and we've went over the notes from the spring, so I think we'll be ready for the weekend. We need to get this car back to Victory Lane and get the No. 20 back up there in the owner's point standings. That is my goal is to win a few more races and get this 20 car back up to third in the owner point standings by the end of the season.

"I'm pretty pumped about having Gran Turismo 5 on the car this weekend as well. It is one of the biggest selling video games of all time. I've been fortunate enough to get to play some of the early builds of the game and even got to play against the guy who created the whole series. And for GT5 to include NASCAR in the game this year is really sick. To think that you can go on there and race the No. 20 car is wild. I've played a lot of racing games my whole life, and it's always crazy to see not only one, but two of your own cars in the game. So maybe if I get to Victory Lane, they'll send me a free copy of the game. Haha"

Kevin Kidd:

"I really only have one goal this weekend, and that is to go back to Texas and win the race like we were close to doing back in April. We had a good car that day and just weren't able to keep up with the adjustments on the car as well as our teammate was. We had great pit stops, and we put ourselves in positions to win the race. If we do that again this weekend and learn what we did from the spring race, I think we'll be a force to reckon with.

"We've got two things really going for us this weekend. First is Joey. He's been on a roll on the Cup side and that confidence always comes over to this side (the Nationwide garage) as well. Joey's been solid over here all year long, but with that little bit of added confidence that comes from starting to run really well on a consistent basis over there, that will make him just that much better over here. On top of that, we've got our best car, 2089, coming to the track this weekend. That has been the car that Joey has used in five of his eight-career wins. It's a great car, and Joey really seems to like the way it drives. We know a lot about the car and have a lot of notes on what it takes to make it go a little faster. So all of those things added up, with a lot of hard work by the guys and good stops by our crew on Saturday, and there is no reason we shouldn't be a contender in this race."

-source: jgr