A year later, Logano can’t describe feeling of winning Daytona 500
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida – Defending Daytona 500 champion Joey Logano still struggles to describe the emotions he felt when he crossed the finish line of last season’s race.
“I tell the story all the time of just what it was like to start my first race here and what that meant to me,” Logano said Tuesday at Daytona media day. “Winning it is incredible. It is a hard feeling to explain because it is hardest to put it in words. Even a year later I still can’t put it in words. I was just screaming on the radio and that is probably still the best way to explain it now.”
The win put Logano into the Chase and helped catapult him towards a six-win season, though he ultimately fell short of the title. You likely know how he didn’t win the title too; when leading at Martinsville, Logano was punted by Matt Kenseth and subsequently eliminated from the Chase two races later.
Despite the lack of a title, Logano said he didn’t see 2015 as a disappointment. A large part of that is likely because he has that Daytona 500 trophy.
“Last year our goal was to win the championship and we fell short of it but was it a disappointing season? No,” Logano said. “You can’t say a season like that is disappointing. It was a great season. Did we reach every goal? No, but we reached a lot of goals and set a lot of new personal records that I am proud of for our race team. Is it a failure? No, I wouldn’t say it was in any way. To me you are not a failure until you quit. You are not a loser until you quit. We didn’t do that at all last year and we aren’t going to do that this year.”
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Logano describes his relationship with Kenseth as “neutral.” Don’t be looking for the feud to be rekindled without new sparks in 2016.
“I would say we are at a neutral spot,” Logano said. “To be honest with you, what we talked about at Homestead last year I felt like I got everything off my chest and hopefully he did. I don’t know if he did or not but I feel like I have a clear conscious and I am moving forward.”
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!