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FROZEN FUN ON RAILS

Like any good kid who grew up in the Northeast, Joey Logano likes to play in the snow.

Still, getting the opportunity to drive a bobsled down the Olympic course at Lake Placid, N.Y. gives him a rush just like the one he gets on Sundays while driving the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota Camry on NASCAR’s many speedways.

The fact that he gets to do it while helping out the Bo-Dyne Bobsled Project is just icing on the cake.

Logano will take part in the fifth annual Lucas Oil Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge on Jan. 8-10 in Lake Placid, along with Toyota Tundra pilot Todd Bodine and a handful of drivers from the National Hot Rod Association. The event is held as a major fund-raiser for Geoff Bodine’s continuing efforts to field competitive bobsleds for the U.S. National teams in all bobsled divisions. (For more details check out www.bodynebobsled.com).

It’s working, too. The week before Christmas, Team USA bobsledders Steve Holcomb and Shauna Rohbock earned podium finishes in World Cup action at Altenburg, Germany. The Team USA drivers are in low profile, aerodynamic Bo-Dyn sleds built by the Bodine family through its partnership with Chassis Dynamics, which used to build the family’s modified cars.

Taking a sled down the course is a real blast, Logano said.

“It’s a real rush,” the 19-year-old Raybestos Rookie of the Year said. “It’s similar to racing, the same feel as when you’re in a car, to me. That’s one reason I like doing this, because in the offseason you don’t get to race. It’s kind of a racing fix for me.”

As to handling, obviously the sled is different from his Toyota Camry racecar, but the sensation of speed is much the same.

“It’s more like a go-kart,” Logano said. “The thing that makes you feel like you’re going fast is, you’re trying to remember what comes next, and as you go down the track you’re going faster and faster and you can’t stop. That kind of gives you a little more of a feeling that you’re going fast. You’re on ice, so you are sliding around everywhere. That’s the same feeling you get in a racecar. Those are the fun parts about it.”

Of course, the fact that he’s having fun and helping Team USA is a prime motivator as well.

“It’s pretty fun,” he said of the competition between NASCAR and NHRA drivers. “I had a real good time the first time I went out there and it’s cool that they help out the U.S. Bobsled team. I think that’s really neat, what they do. It involves racing for me, which is what I love to do. I went up there, enjoyed it a lot, and I’m happy to help them out as much as I can.

“Why not? It’s the offseason; there’s not much else for us to do as well. Plus, it gets us on the road again. I can’t stand sitting at home.”

On the course, Logano said he could feel the G forces acting on him, just like at Bristol or Talladega. In fact, he said the Gs on the bobsled run are similar to those in the racecar.

“They’re close,” he said. “It’s more pushing you down in the seat than to the side. There’s so much banking; it’s pretty much a wall, what you go up on, and that pretty much throws you down in the seat rather than side-to-side.

“Your head still moves around a lot, but it’s mostly really cold when you go down there!”

While the sled doesn’t have the pinpoint control he’s used to when on four tires instead of four runners, Logano likes the feel of the sled on the ice.

“I think me being a race car driver, it helps, because you get the feel of momentum, as far as whether the sled is pushing or bottoming out or the rear of it is sliding out. You kind of get used to it if you do it a lot in a car, and so you kind of get the same feel there. That plays into my hands a little bit, but we’re all race car drivers out there so it doesn’t really help much.

“You can steer it,” he continued. “A lot of people can probably steer the thing down there without wrecking, but it’s hard to do that and go fast and steer it in the right spots and know what it takes to go faster, and I think that’s why the professionals are so much better than me.”

As to the competitive nature of the event, sponsored for the first time this year by Lucas Oil, Logano said it’s intense.

“It’s pretty competitive,” he said with a laugh. “You know race car drivers are all over-competitive and I’m one of those. At first it’s all fun and games, and then after everyone makes at least one run down there, it’s like, ‘OK, who’s the fastest?’ and ‘What do I need to do to go faster?’

“Of course, we’re all trying to figure out little things to go faster — polishing the runners or putting extra weights in our pockets — stupid little things so we can go faster.”

One thing Logano doesn’t have to worry about is failing technical inspection. The Bo-Dyn sleds are built for speed, and the faster the better.

“There’s not a whole lot of inspection, not as much as there needs to be!” he cracked. “If you can’t take advantage of what you can get, what good is it? There’s no grid that goes over the sled like in NASCAR.”

Logano will be gunning for the top spot on the podium this year, trying to dethrone defending champion Morgan Lucas, whose day job is driving the Toyota-supported Lucas Oil top fuel car in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

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