Joey Logano on Martinsville flap: 'It's hard to erase from your mind'

Remember what happened the last time the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series raced at Martinsville Speedway?

Joey Logano sure does.

Last fall, Logano led 207 of the first 453 laps at Martinsville, where he appeared headed to his fourth consecutive race victory and his first Cup championship.

But it all went horribly wrong for Logano on Lap 454, when a frustrated Matt Kenseth retaliated against Logano for spinning out Kenseth at Kansas and Logano's teammate, Brad Keselowski, for wrecking Kenseth on an restart on Lap 435 at Martinsville.

In that split-second, Logano was in the SAFER barrier and his title hopes all but over.

In NASCAR, running well is always the best revenge, but even capturing the pole for Sunday's STP 500 was enough to get the bad taste of last year's Martinsville race out of Logano's mouth.

That much was evident in Logano's post-qualifying interview.

"To be honest with you, it's hard to erase it from your mind, right?" Logano said when asked about last year's race. "It's there. It happened. It's in the past, but it is something that drives you. And you've got to use things like that to motivate you. Not only you, but your team."

It's pretty obvious Logano and the No. 22 Team Penske squad were motivated on Friday, when Logano won his third consecutive Martinsville pole.

"Re-watching the race and stuff like that, if that doesn't give you a little fire, nothing does," said Logano. "I know I felt really excited and really pumped up, jacked up, to come to this race track and show what we're made of."