Aside from the race itself, events leading up Joey Logano’s NASCAR Cup Series debut (below) don’t readily come to mind. Sept. 14, 2008, had been a long-awaited day for the Middletown, Conn. native, but now that it was here, he couldn’t escape the nerves.
“I remember being at driver intros pretty nervous that I’m racing with the big boys; it’s kind of cool,” Logano told RACER. “But I was pretty nervous about it, and we just ran awful. That’s what I remember. Nothing went well. Just slow.”
He adds with a laugh, “I’ll take full credit for that. It was a mess. I didn’t know what to do, and the thing that’s weird is Loudon is my first win (June 2009), first start and all that, but to this day, (it’s) probably the most challenging racetrack for me to get my head wrapped around.
“And that happened to be my first race that we ran so bad. We couldn’t have picked a worse racetrack to have your first race.”
Logano finished 32nd. Nine years later, he’ll make his 300th career start Sunday at Richmond International Raceway. Ironically, Richmond being where it was supposed to start for Logano (the week before Loudon), but rain washed out qualifying and Logano missed the show.
He remembers Richmond better than he remembers Loudon. Speed often sticks with a driver and Logano had that in Richmond. Off the truck, he was fourth fastest, eventually winding up ninth in practice.
“We were fast,” Logano said. “I remember going through my mind saying, ‘I got this. Shoot, these cars are not as hard as everyone says they are to drive. We got this figured out. I’m going to be fine. I’m going to win right out of the gate in this thing, just like I did in my Xfinity car when I first jumped into that.’
“Then Loudon was the first slap in the face for me. That was the first wake up call. Oh, man, God brought me right back to reality quick.”
‘The writing was on the wall’
Logano arrived on the scene as an 18-year-old prodigy, tagged with the nickname “Sliced Bread” – as in, the best thing since. A lot has happened in the 299 starts since then. After Loudon, Logano ran two more races in 2008 before he inherited the No. 20 full-time for Joe Gibbs.
It was a rocky start, as Logano crashed in his first Daytona 500 and finished last. It wasn’t until Talladega in late April he scored his first top-10 finish. His first top 10 on a non-restrictor-plate track was in May. In June, Logano pulled off an upset, at none other than Loudon (below), by scoring his first career win in a rain-shortened event.
Admittedly, Logano wasn’t running stellar that day and certainly didn’t have a car capable of winning. But a spin from a flat left-rear tire brought out a race-changing caution. Logano pitted while others on the lead lap chose to stay out.
“It wasn’t too long after a restart, and then there’s a long green flag run after that and weather was coming, so no one wanted to green flag cycle, but it got to the point that everyone was running out of gas, so they were pitting,” Logano recalled. “But I had 15 or so laps in my tank more than they had, so we just stayed out, stayed out, stayed out. It started raining and boom, we won the race.”
Some called it a fluke. Others a lucky win. Logano heard it all.
“Since then I’ve probably lost 10 races that way where I actually had the winning car and it rained at the wrong time, so at this point, I really defend that win because I feel like I’ve lost enough to deserve that one that I actually got,” Logano said. “I’ll take it. I don’t care what anybody says. We’re taking it.
“I remember Jeff Gordon saying, ‘How many lucky dogs did he get today?’ Because I got like two or three in that race. Jeff finished second, and I remember him saying that on the radio. I’d be pissed too if I was him.”
The memory brings a laugh but Logano’s time at Gibbs wasn’t always joyful. Rumors were constantly swirling he was going to lose his job. Carl Edwards or Matt Kenseth were coming for his ride. It was only smart, Logano admitted, for him to be heads-up, and with interest from Team Penske, things began to fall into place. Or so Logano thought.
“I remember talking to Walt (Czarnecki, Team Penske executive vice president) a few times about it and I talked with Roger (Penske), and Brad (Keselowski) and I had a good relationship,” Logano said. “We tried to make it happen the year before my deal was over at Gibbs … the writing was on the wall. It was going to happen. (But) at that point there was no fit to replace me at Gibbs, so it was, ‘OK, we’ve got to do another year,’ and at the time Penske had to make a play and put somebody in the 22, so they put AJ (Allmendinger) in.
“At that point, Penske was not an option because of the terms that they had with AJ. I wasn’t going to get to drive the 22 car. Then we all know what happened. That seat opened back up at the right time because I had nothing; I had an Xfinity ride, that was the plan.”
Allmendinger lost the ride midway through 2012. Logano joined Team Penske in 2013 and has since won 15 races, including the 2015 Daytona 500 and the 2016 All-Star Race. He’s finished no worse than eighth in points in his first four seasons with the team.
Logano finds it difficult to express what he feels about having the ride open back up and hearing his name in the same sentence as Roger Penske. He believes the writing had been on the wall that he would not only lose his job, but that he would not get another Cup ride elsewhere.
“I don’t really know how to put it into words besides it’s a God thing,” Logano said. “A lot of times when you go back a level, it’s three times as hard to come back (to Cup) because you’ve already made a name for yourself and not in a good way. I got a second chance.
“This is amazing for one; you don’t even know what to say about it. You’re able to walk in the doors as a 22-year-old, and not 15 like I did at Gibbs. I had experience under my belt, and I was ready for it, and I was ready to attack and make it happen because my back was against the wall. There’s no excuses anymore. You can’t use age as an excuse; you can’t use experience as an excuse – you got three, four years under your belt. You have to produce and knowing Roger Penske, obviously, he told me right off the bat, he expects us to go out there and win. And we did.
“It’s been good since then, but I think about going through the struggles to make you who you are. If it weren’t for those moments, none of this happens today. I think that’s why I’m so grateful for the struggle.”
300 and beyond
It feels like Logano has been around forever and he understands why. Some days, it feels like 300 starts have taken a long time; other days Logano looks at things as if they went by in a flash. After start number one came at the age of 18, Logano will make his 300th a month shy of his 27th birthday and in his ninth season.
“You end up not remembering a lot of the races,” Logano said. “Reaching 300 starts is a cool stat only because I’m 26 years old. There are plenty of other drivers out there that have over 500 starts. That’s an amazing milestone, but I think being able to do it at my age is what makes this neat, and to think, hey, in another nine or 10 years, I’m still not that old, and I’m at 600 (starts). That’s when it kind of gets into perspective to me. Like, ‘Holy moly, I could be racing a lot of races here.'”
While not every one of his 299 previous starts stand out, Logano can easily recall races and moments he’d like to have back. Moves that, if he hadn’t made, he wouldn’t have crashed. Or speeding penalties when he had the car to beat.
“The races that stand out in my mind are the races I make the mistake, more than anything,” Logano said. “It’s a team sport, so all of us make mistakes. But I think when you personally make the mistake, and you feel like you’ve let your team down, those are the worst ones for me.”
There are also certain moments Logano thinks about.
“I immediately think about the beginning of my career and the struggles that I went through and the lost feeling I had a lot of times of not really knowing what to do,” Logano said. “Kind of that panic feeling that you’re about to lose our job and all that. That’s a bad feeling. It’s a feeling I don’t ever want to have again. It motivates me. To this day, I still think of that.
“I’m grateful for how we run every weekend, because I am who I am because of the struggle we went through. It’s made me the man I am on the track and off the track and the decisions I make are because of the experience and the people that I have around me now. So, there’s no regrets because I’ve been able to learn from my mistakes to where I’m actually grateful for the mistakes that I’ve made.”
Part of that process was growing up, and Logano did so in front of a worldwide audience. His mistakes were blasted all over television just as much as his accomplishments were. In December 2014, Logano celebrated a personal milestone by marrying his longtime girlfriend, Brittany Baca. It’s given Logano balance both at home and work. Not only do they enjoy doing the same things, Logano calls Brittany his sounding board – the two play off each other.
“I did kind of grow up in front of everybody, which I never really let affect me that much,” Logano said. “I’ve always been myself, kind of a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. Be respectful and be who I am and don’t be somebody just because it pleases the fans or TV. I’m Joey, and that’s it. I hope you like. If not, oh well.
“My wife helps me a lot with that stuff (mistakes), too. That’s one of the biggest things when you say how married life and all that changes things. Just having someone to lean on and talk to. She has a great perspective on life and being in tuned with what I do but also being a little removed from the race team. She can help me in how to handle situations with people.”
Along the way, he and Brittany started the Joey Logano Foundation. Saying she has a bigger heart than he does (“I believe that’s why God put her in my life”), Logano said his wife has helped him recognize that the chance to make an impact on people’s lives lends more significance to his racing career.
“(Brittany) said God’s given me an amazing platform to drive racecars,” Logano said. “I can live out my dream. But what good is it if you don’t do anything with it? What good is it if you just have trophies at the end of the day? Who cares? It’s going to be forgotten about.
“If you can, at the end of the day, say you’ve touched somebody’s life, that’s something that can really hold a legacy. It can make you feel like a lot better. It’s a bigger win than any race.”
It’s a responsibility Logano doesn’t take lightly. Since 2013, the foundation has invested in $1,470,529 in organizations across the United States, per its website. This year, the focus is on a single cause (kids in crisis, which started at Bristol) after Logano was inspired at the funeral of 5-year-old NASCAR fan, Jake Leatherman.
“It was so touching; I remember sitting there in tears and thought, ‘We missed an opportunity, we screwed up,'” Logano said. “It’s great that the community is here now, but we screwed this up. It’s too late. Now, we’re finding these kids, and we’re calling them the ‘JL Kid’s Crew.’ We’re bringing them to the racetrack, we’re giving them the same suits the team has, and we’re going to make them a part of the team and make them feel normal.”
A lot has happened to Joey Logano since that 2008 September day, then. Personally, professionally, and within.
“Complete 180,” Logano said. “When I first came into the sport, after the first three or four starts and getting my butt kicked so much, I had no confidence. I was not strong in what to do; didn’t make decisions for myself; didn’t know the next step. Now, I’ve done a complete 180. Confident in the decisions I make, willing to stand up for myself. The game’s changed.
“The results on the racetrack have changed because of that. The results didn’t change me; I was able to change the results, which is great. And it’s because I have a great support group around me, but I learned from all my mistakes. So, if all that same happened in 300 starts, I’m stoked to see what’s going to happen in another 300.”
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