Driver Joey Logano, crew chief Todd Gordon balance each other

Probably the most important relationship on any Sprint Cup team is between the driver and the crew chief.

That works particularly well between driver Joey Logano and crew chief Todd Gordon. They speak even when they don’t exactly speak.

Let Logano describe:

“We were joking on that red flag and I said, ‘Hey, because I get confused about what he’s thinking, because I don’t really know and I’m just driving the car around in circles and he’s calling the race. ...

“I asked, ‘Hey, do you want to tell me the game plan or just want me to drive and I’ll figure it out later on?’ And he gave me the ‘Yeah.’ That means everything without saying anything.”

That might sound a bit spacey but it works for these two. Logano has won twice already this season, at the Daytona 500 and Watkins Glen International. There is an implicit trust between Logano and Gordon, a synergy that is a big strength for the No. 22 Team Penske car this season.

That played out in their interviews after Logano won the Cheez-It 355 at the Glen Sunday. Logano was talking about running out of gas the week before at Pocono Raceway. He said winning at Watkins Glen made up for that bad day in Pocono.

“So Todd did a great job of calling this race,” Logano said, “and makes up a lot for last week ...”

Gordon feigned pain as if Logano was ripping him. It was all in fun. Everyone laughed.

“To Joey’s point, he drives the race car, I call the race, and we don’t argue about that,” Gordon said. “It’s very clear what each of us needs to do and the team does a phenomenal job of everybody executing whether it’s the pit crew, the engineers or the mechanics in the garage.”

They understand each other. Logano is wired to drive as fast as he can all the time, to be a risk-taker. It’s Gordon’s job to tell him when to back off, when to conserve gas and brakes.

Logano knows tempering his competitiveness isn’t always an easy job.

“I really only have one speed – GO!” Logano said. “It’s really hard for me to check up and Todd knows that.”

Now they and the rest of the Sprint Cup teams move on to Michigan International Speedway, where NASCAR will experiment with an aerodynamic package first used at Indianapolis. Rather than fret about change, Gordon treated it as a fresh opportunity.

“We’ve had a lot of speed at Michigan. That was our first win as a duo,” Gordon said. “Looking forward to where the aero package takes us because I think it plays into our hands. I think it plays into some of the things that we like in our race cars.”

This story was originally published August 13, 2015 at 5:16 PM with the headline "Driver Joey Logano, crew chief Todd Gordon balance each other."