CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Two wins in four seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing certainly didn’t get the job done for Joey Logano, not after replacing Hall of Famer Tony Stewart and entering NASCAR with the nickname “Sliced Bread” because you’re supposedly the next best thing.
He knew his days with Gibbs were coming to an end in 2012, the same time Roger Penske needed a driver. It was Brad Keselowski, then a Penske driver, who introduced Logano to the team owner. Keselowski was confident the 23-year-old could still be as good as expected with a change of scenery.
Keselowski was right: Logano joins Team Penske changed the entire organization. That only happened, Penske believes, because the organization pledged its support to Logano at the lowest point of his career.
“I think he first had to shed some of the reputation he had. They called it ‘Sliced Bread,’ I think, or whatever,” Penske said. “But he got rid of it pretty quickly. We were behind him, and I think that was the key, and he just grew and grew and grew.
Logano took his second chance with a top NASCAR team and became a star in the series. He will be celebrated Friday evening at the end-of-season awards ceremony for winning his third Cup Series title; Logano is now the only three-time champion active in NASCAR and one of 10 drivers in history to win three or more titles.
He did it all with Team Penske, which threw Logano a lifeline when he could have quickly retired from NASCAR. His championship win earlier this month at Phoenix Raceway gave Penske three straight Cup titles – 2022 and 2024 with Logano, with Ryan Blaney sandwiched in between. Blaney finished second to Logano this year.
JGR’s bombing ultimately put Logano on a much better path. Since joining Penske in 2013, Logano has won 34 of his 36 career Cup Series victories and three championships. When he was 18 and jumped into a Cup seat vacated by Stewart at Gibbs, he won two races in four seasons and never finished higher than 16th in the standings.
He let the extinction JGR light his fire for his move to the No. 22 Ford.
“I don’t think it’s the No. 1 motivator, but you like to prove people wrong, don’t you? You know what I mean? You would like to silence the critics,” Logano said. “I don’t have anything negative to say about JGR. I think they’re a great racing team and I understand the decision they made. We didn’t win. Something has to change.”
“But do you take this with you when you go away for a bit? Yeah, that’s probably the case. You’re a little bitter about it,” Logano added.
Logano likes to drive with a little edge, finding something he can take as an affront and use it to motivate himself.
By winning title number three, Logano left Charlotte Motor Speedway in October, eliminated from the round of 16. Hours later, Alex Bowman was disqualified for failing post-race inspection. Logano was suddenly back.
He then won the opening race of the third round becoming the first driver to earn an automatic place in the championship final.
Logano, in the last month of the season, used all the criticism against him to push him to another level. He was no longer the new kid in NASCAR and he didn’t have a great year – just one win during the regular season on fuel economy, no less – and he was ranked 15th out of 16 playoff drivers.
He was so close before the final that he was unusually explicit in his post-qualifying press conference when asked if it was his championship to lose and Logano said: “Yeah, we have them where we want them. We just have to put our foot on their throat from here.
He would then get up at 6 a.m. on race day to review his notes with Paul Wolfe, now the only active three-time champion crew chief.
Logano, a father of three and considered a crew chief at Team Penske and Ford, said something changed in him when he could see the finish line.
“It’s just closer to the goal, I’m getting more intense, probably a little shorter,” Logano said. “I try to reach the same level of intensity all year round, but it seems like when you get to the end you find another piece of equipment, and it’s very difficult to get to most of the time. But I think it’s also the case with the whole team. It’s not just me.
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