Logano's crew gets it done

— -- DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Ray Gallahan couldn't have felt much worse this past November at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

NASCAR race fans know of Gallahan. They just don't know his name. They know that Joey Logano lost his shot for the 2014 Sprint Cup title when his car fell off the jack during the money pit stop, a stop that lasted 49.3 seconds and dropped Logano about 17 positions, placing him 29th with 15 laps remaining.

Having jacked race cars for 11 years and as the most experienced crewman on the Team Penske No. 22 team, Gallahan figures he had gone about eight years without having a car fall off his jack. He readily admits that he made a mistake, that he just didn't get the jack underneath the peg in the right spot.

"It's like Russell Wilson's throw in the Super Bowl," Gallahan said Monday morning, comparing the mistake to that of the Seattle Seahawks quarterback. "It's a slant. You've got to throw it. It didn't land where you wanted it to. And you just have to live with the consequences."

Gallahan didn't get fired. He didn't get yelled at. All he got were phone calls. Team owner Roger Penske was among the first of those offering encouragement, stressing the team philosophy and making sure Gallahan knew that when the 2015 Daytona 500 came in three months, Penske wanted him to jack Logano's car.

"Anybody who was anybody at our company called me," Gallahan said. "It's amazing when you get that kind of support. It was my 11th Cup season and I've been through a lot, but never anything like that. ... To have them react that way really empowered me to come back to the racetrack and perform well."

Celebrating Logano's Daytona 500 victory Sunday night at Daytona International Speedway, the entire Logano pit crew enjoyed a little bit of redemption. From the jack problem and a loose lug nut that also resulted in lost spots in the season finale at Homestead, the crew finally got the opportunity to rebound, delivering a flawless performance in its first race back since that frustrating and disappointing day more than three months ago. Talk about the thrill of victory vs. the agony of defeat.

"For me, it's pretty breathtaking to go from, like, the lowest of lows to probably one of the highest of highs you can have in all of motorsports," Gallahan said. "Obviously that deal that happened at Homestead was unfortunate. It was just a bang-bang thing. You just have to embrace it.

"It definitely is a life-changing thing. You try to take positives from that, and you try to go on and learn from it and get better."

When meeting the media after the race, Penske was just 50 seconds into his opening statement when he said: "Same pit crew."

Those three words sent a message to everyone: The Captain hadn't given up on a group put together for the start of the 2014 season. Gallahan, tire changers Thomas Hatcher and Zach Price, tire carrier Dylan Dowell and gas man Kellen Mills all returned for 2015. The only change to the crew is a new rear tire carrier, Eric Groen from Joe Gibbs Racing.

The Penske brass hoped Logano's crew would handle the adversity well but didn't know for sure until the green flag dropped Sunday -- then still wouldn't know until it came down to the final pit stop at Daytona.

"My biggest worry was that they could get over it and still enjoy what they accomplished last year," Team Penske competition director Travis Geisler said. "To go out and win five races and make the final round [of the Chase], that's what they needed to focus on and be proud of. Especially after this win, they can look back at last year and be proud of what happened."

NASCAR pit crews often have tight bonds, much like other sports teams. Performing their jobs in relative anonymity, they rarely personally get called out by fans or media. If they're at a bar without their crew shirts, no one is buying them a drink on a good day nor screaming at the crew guys for ruining a fantasy team on a bad day.

That just increases the locker room mentality they have to rely on each other.

"After the race, there wasn't one person that went to Ray and said 'We don't believe in you' or anything like that," front tire changer Hatcher said.

Yeah, sure. That's what they all say.

"Even behind Ray's back, there wasn't one person," Hatcher said. "We all believed in each other. We knew we could do it. There was a fire burning for three months. We did more than step it up in the offseason. Would we be able to take that next step?

"Everything happens for a reason. We tell each other that as a pit crew."

The offseason didn't go without mention of Homestead. Comedian Jay Mohr, at the Sprint Cup Series Awards, poked fun at the Logano crew for slow pit stops in a series of recurring jokes throughout his monologue.

"I hope I'm not talking too fast -- I don't want Joey Logano's pit crew to miss any of my jokes," Mohr said before adding another zinger at the Dec. 5 event. "I'm not saying that Joey Logano's pit crew is slow, but tomorrow they're celebrating Thanksgiving."

Geisler couldn't laugh then. And he doesn't laugh now.

"I didn't laugh at those jokes," Geisler said. "I never will because those guys mean so much to me. Those guys are like brothers to me. If somebody makes fun of your brother, you never really feel too good about it. I understand what you've got to do, and that's what those guys get paid to do."

What did Gallahan think of those jokes by Jay Mohr?

"Who's that?" Gallahan said with a pretty darn good straight face. "Should I know who that is?"

Gallahan knows all about Mohr and the jokes. The thing is, Gallahan laughed at them.

"I actually thought it was funny," Gallahan said. "I wouldn't have [laughed] the week or two right after, but, at the time it got to me, I thought it was a pretty clever joke."

Winning the Daytona 500 didn't serve as a big middle-finger salute to the comedian. Regardless of what Mohr said, seeing the championship literally slip away motivated this team enough.

They also know that, even if the team had gotten Logano out when it should have on that final pit stop at Homestead, Logano still would have restarted somewhere around 12th with 15 laps remaining and had to battle eventual champion Kevin Harvick in trying to get by drivers who had stayed out or taken two tires.

They know that even the best of pit stops might not have been good enough to win the title. They just know that the bad day at Homestead kept Logano and the team from capitalizing on any opportunities.

"I was still as confident after the race in my abilities as I was before," Gallahan said. "You just have to get over the emotional letdown and embrace the ups and downs of that moment. That race was so built up. There was so much tension."

Gallahan has gotten over it. The team has gotten over it. They're the 2015 Daytona 500 winners. What happened at Homestead is now officially a bygone.

"I'm the guy that was responsible for it," Gallahan said about Homestead. "You've got to embrace it. If you run from it, if you try to pretend like it didn't happen, you'll never get over it. You'll always try to hide from people wanting to talk to you about it.

"You almost have got to attack it like a pit stop and try to own it. It's made me better. I wish it didn't happen. But it definitely has made me better."