One-time Alpharetta resident Joey Logano is off to a strong start this season, with finishes of ninth at Daytona and 10th at Phoenix, and he appears to be having similar success as he tries to become the captain of his own racing ship.
Logano, 21, has indicated on several occasions this year that having a new crew chief, Jason Ratcliff, offers him a chance to establish the No. 20 team as his own instead of one he inherited from former crew chief Greg Zipadelli and from Tony Stewart, who drove the No. 20 before leaving to drive his own car. Zipadelli now works at Stewart-Haas Racing.
“You can just kind of feel the difference,” Logano said on this week’s NASCAR teleconference. “My attitude’s different. I feel like I walk around with a lot more confidence in myself. That carries through the whole team. ...
“Jason [Ratcliff] is the same way. He’s a ‘glass is half full’ guy. I think that’s very important.”
Logano also said he has tried to be a team leader, something that has been a challenge.
“When you have to lead a team, especially at a young age, all the guys working on the car are older than you, it’s really hard to earn that respect,” he said. “Especially when times are not as good, like last year, earning the guys’ respect is very hard. You need to be able to do that one way or another.
“Learning how to be a leader was something I didn’t know I was going to have to learn but was a huge deal and hard.”
Andrew “Bubba” Pollard, fresh off one of the biggest wins of his Late Model career, will try this weekend to make a major step up the career ladder as he races Saturday in the inaugural ARCA-Mobile 200 at Mobile International Speedway.
Pollard, who won the 36th annual Rattler 250 at South Alabama Speedway on Sunday, will drive a Chevrolet from the same Phoenix Racing team that fields Sprint Cup cars for Kurt Busch, and his engine was prepared by Ernie Elliott of Dawsonville.
Pollard, a 24-year-old Senoia resident, said he hopes a strong run at Mobile, where he has dominated Late Model racing for the past several seasons, will be a springboard for another attempt at a career in one of NASCAR’s elite divisions.
No ride for Roderick
Despite strong performances in the Nationwide Series races at Daytona and Phoenix, Lawrenceville’s Casey Roderick is without a ride for this weekend’s Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Roderick, 19, said his Randy Hill Racing Team, facing a lack of sponsorship, has elected to put another driver in the car this weekend, one who has financial backing.
“I’m pretty much parked until we can find some money,” Roderick said, adding that he’s not disappointed a bit in how he ran in the first two races of the season.
At Daytona, he was able to qualify for the race despite only two laps of practice in his first look at that track. In the race he drove to the lead pack only to be collected in a late-race, multi-car crash.
At Phoenix, he made the show again and finished 17th, on the lead lap, in his underfunded Ford.
Young driver
Mason Massey, a 15-year-old driver from Winston is taking over the Pro Late Model car vacated by Chase Elliott, who is focusing on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series and his career with Hendrick Motorsports.
Massey, who climbed the racing ladder through the Legends program at Atlanta Motor Speedway, finished fourth last week at South Alabama Speedway in his debut in the No. 9 Bill Elliott Racing car.
Massey’s car is sponsored by Praelia Pharmaceuticals, which is promoting its Jeff Foxworthy’s Full Force Energy Shot.
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