Joey Logano has etched his name into the same book as NASCAR greats, with three Cup titles with Team Penske. However, his climb did not come on a smooth road. Some drivers hit bumps early and learn the ropes while the stakes stay low. Others, like Logano, taste success early and then get a wake-up call when they line up with the sport’s big boys.
Loganolit up the record books in the lower ranks, earning the nickname “Sliced Bread” before he hit his teens. Barely a year after he started racing at six, he grabbed his first title at seven in 1997. From there, the trophies kept rolling in. He won the National Bandolero Bandits crown in 1999, the Young Lions National Championship in 2002, and the Pro National Championship in Legends, making him the youngest champion in that series. The wins kept stacking up in the K&N Pro Series East in 2007, ARCA, Late Models, and even the Xfinity Series in 2008.
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But when he stepped into the Cup Series with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2009, that golden run hit a wall. Reflecting on that period ahead of the Daytona 500, Logano opened up about how it all happened.
“It’s a tricky place for a young kid to grow up in, right, to have all that hype. It can affect you in a lot of different ways and, unfortunately, mainly bad ways,” the Team Penske driver said. on First Things First. “Because I think you start to drink your own Kool-Aid, if you will. You start to believe in all the hype, and you start to just think you’re that great. And you don’t go to work like you’re supposed to. Or you start to get a little arrogant. At some point reality gonna slap you in the face.”
“When I got to the cup level, the NASCAR top level here, I got the slice of humble pie that I deserved. I went up against all the guys that were the phenoms, right, growing up. And I got my butt kicked for three years before I was able to get my head wrapped around things…”
“If I’m being honest, I failed at that. I lost my job. I was at a point that I was like, well, ‘Uh-oh, what am I going to do the rest of my life? I’m 21 years old, and I don’t know if I’m going to make it.”
Back then, his results left Joe Gibbs Racing scrambling to land sponsorship. When Roger Penske called Joe Gibbs and asked about Logano, acting on Brad Keselowski’s nudge, Gibbs asked for a week as they were trying to get sponsors for Logano. Without funding lined up, the options were thin for JGR. They would have either moved him back to Xfinity or released him.
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Penske stepped in and threw Logano a lifeline, and that move flipped the young driver’s career. The struggles, though, left their mark. That tough period taught Logano how to lose before he could learn how to win again. Each failure became a lesson, each misstep a brick in rebuilding belief.
And he has stayed in that same camp ever since, and that turning point still echoes in how he carries himself. It taught him to punch the clock and keep grinding. To this day, Logano reminds himself not to coast, keeping that hunger alive and pushing to raise his game lap after lap.
The post Joey Logano Reveals Brutal Reality Check When He Lost His NASCAR Seat After Coming In As A Superstar appeared first on The SportsRush.
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