Joey Logano, NASCAR driver won his first Daytona 500 10 years ago, but didn’t know it would be his final trip to Victory Lane in his sport’s biggest race.
Every year since his victory in 2015 at age 24, Logano has felt like he’s on the cusp of his next victory.
After all, he’s been there more times than he’d like to count.
“I feel like it’s because of a few little things changing, we’re sitting here with four of them,” he recently told the Orlando Sentinel. “I’m more frustrated than proud of being close.”
Logano is expected to once again be in the thick of things on Feb. 16 when the Daytona 500 kicks off the 2025 regular season.
The 34-year-old just won his third NASCAR Cup Series title, something apt Jimmy Johnson and Tony Stewart have done it since 2000 and only 10 drivers have succeeded in the history of the sport.
“It’s really special but I’m still right in the middle of it,” he said. “At some point I’ll look back and think, ‘Man, that’s really cool.’ But we are far from finished.
Logano, a 36-time Cup Series winner, could further solidify his status among NASCAR’s elite with another Daytona 500 victory – something several iconic drivers including Stewart and Kyle Busch failed to accomplish even once.
Logano’s hot pursuit comes a year after he won the pole for the first time and led a personal best 45 laps before a massive 23-car crash ended his day on lap 191.
A year earlier, he finished second to Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who won a record 212 laps under caution after Logano led at one point on the final lap.
“(If) the caution had come out a second and a half before, we would have won the Daytona 500,” Logano said.
In 2021, Logano was leading Brad Keselowski on the final lap, but when Logano looked to hold off Keselowski, the two cars collided and Michael McDowell took the lead for a resounding victory.
During Denny Hamlin’s victory in 2019Logano finished fourth when he felt McDowell, also driving a Ford Mustang, failed to give him a boost late in the race. McDowell then watched replays, spoke with Logano and Ford executives and said he probably made a mistake.
Add it to the list of close calls for Logano, who hopes his fortunes improve in a race he first drove in 2009, when he crashed early and finished dead last in 43rd place.
Then a 19-year-old phenom driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, Logano won just twice in four seasons before being dropped by Gibbs and landing with Roger Penske, another Hall of Fame owner.
“I needed that reality check to learn about myself, to learn how to prepare, to learn how to go to work,” said Logano, who enters his 17th Cup Series ready to work to win again the race that continues to elude him – and consume him.
“There have been a few times where I’ve led the lap under the white flag, but not the one under the checkered flag,” he recently told the Sentinel. “And it’s frustrating.”
Edgar Thompson can be contacted at [email protected].
To be continued…
Daytona 500
When: February 16, 2:30 p.m.
TV: FOX
