Joey Logano biography
Date of birth : 1990-05-24
Date of death : -
Birthplace : Middletown, Connecticut, U.S.
Nationality : American
Category : Sports
Last modified : 2010-07-27
Credited as : NASCAR driver and racer, Daytona auto racer,
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GROWING UP
Joseph Thomas Logano was born on May 24, 1990, in Middletown, Connecticut. Joey was the second of Deborah and Tom Logano’s two children. His older sister, Danielle, was an accomplished figure skater. Deborah was also a top skater as a teenager.
Unlike many drivers who distinguish themselves at an early age, Joey had no roots in racing. The sport was not part of the family culture. Tom owned a sanitation business in suburban Connecticut. Joey became interested in trucks and cars as a four-year-old, so his dad let him drive his company’s slow-moving water-spraying trucks. Later Tom bought an 8hp go-kart, moved the pedals up so Joey could reach them, and put a roll bar around it.
It didn't take long for Joey to fall in love with racing. He drove his kart from sun-up to sundown. A worker at Tom’s garage had a son who drove a quarter-midget. he suggested that Joey give it a whirl. He was a natural. Joey entered his first race at age 6.
Tom didn’t get it at first. He coached local youth league baseball and baskteball teams, and pushed Joey into those sports. But Joey wasn't interested in doing anything where he couldn't go fast. When winter came, he drove go-karts on indoor tracks and also got his speed thrills on the ice playing hockey. He continued to play the sport through his teen years.
Joey first made headlines in 1997, when he won a quarter-midget race on the Eastern Grand National circuit at the ripe old age of 7. By 1999, the Loganos decided to move to Georgia to find better competition. Not for Joey, but for Danielle, who was becoming a world-class figure skater. The move turned out to be a blessing for Joey. His new home state lacked many of the age restriction that governed racing in Connecticut. Joey kept driving and the winning continued. He raced to victory against teen drivers at age 9 in a 2000 Legends Series event.
In 2001, Joey won the Lowe’s Motor Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway Bandolero Bandits division. And at age 12, he became the youngest driver to compete at the Pro Legends level. He went on to win a national championship. At this point, Joey’s driving had already caught the eye of NASCAR legend Mark Martin, who spotted him while watching his own son race. Martin assumed it was Tom’s crafty pit work that gave his boy the edge, but soon he realized that it was all Joey.
Martin called the Loganos to tell them their son was something special. He had once tabbed an unknown teenager named Matt Kenseth for future greatness, so he had an eye for talent. Also sniffing around the Loganos was Scott Zipadelli, whose older brother, Greg, was a well-known NASCAR crew chief. At this point, Tom figured out that Joey had a big future in racing.
ON THE RISE
In 2004, Joey began competing in ASA Late Model Series races, where there were no age restrictions. Driving against adults, he more than held his own. The main irony of Joey’s life at this time was that he was trading paint with adults at 100-plus mph, but between races he was still an unlicensed driver. His sister Danielle often had to chauffeur him around town.
Everyone who spent time with Joey in his early teens came away with the same opinion. He was a born driver, a raw talent who sensed things about car and track as a boy that others spent a lifetime learning. He wasn’t just good for his age. He was good. Period. And he didn't yet weight 100 pounds!
By 2005, Joey was considered a bona fide racing prodigy. His family moved again, this time to North Carolina, so he could start soaking up Nextel Cup culture and begin talking to potential racing teams. Joey was only 14 when he competed in—and won—in the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series. No one that young had ever won a race at that level. Martin, who was still watching Joey’s progress. proclaimed that, at 15, he was already good enough to take his seat in the #6 car for Roush Fenway racing.
Joey and his parents had assumed that he would sign a development deal with Roush. But negotiations dragged on for months, and Jack Roush himself expressed doubt about Joey’s future. Joe Gibbs swooped in and put a better offer on the table, and the Loganos signed.
Joey’s career took a giant leap forward in 2007 after NASCAR relaxed its age limit and allowed 16-year-olds to compete at the Grand National level —a development division started in 1987 for drivers, crews and officials. He drove in 13 East Series events, won three poles and five races, and finished atop the standings to claim both the series championship and Rookie of the Year honors. Joey also entered and won a West Series race in Arizona, driving a Gibbs car to victory. That fall he took the checkered flag at the Toyota All-Star Showdown at age 17.
In 2008, Joey got a ride with Venturini Motorsports’ ARCA team. In his first start, he drove to victory in the Carolina 500 at Rockingham Speedway. In that race, he out-dueled wily veteran Ken Schrader.
Joey scored an equally impressive vicotry at an ARCA event in upstate New York. On a tight half-mile track, he could not find his comfort zone and fell far behind in the race. Gradually, he began reading the difficult track and when the checker flag fell, he had crossed the finish line first.
In May, Joey made his long-awaited Nationwide Series debut. He finished a solid 6th for the Joe Gibbs Racing team in the Heluva Good 200 at Dover. Teammate Denny Hamlin won the race, but Joey got kudos for staying in the hunt after smashing into Kasey Kahne early in the race in a pit row mishap. Joey would have driven in the Nationwide Series sooner, but the rules said he had to wait until his 18th birthday.
Two starts later, on June 14th, Joey made headlines by winning the Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway. In doing so, he became the youngest driver to win a Nationwide Series race, eclipsing the record set by Casey Atwood nine years earlier. There was nothing flukish about the victory. Joey won the pole in qualifying, and he and teammate Kurt Busch dominated the race until Busch spun out. Joey finished off the competition with ease.
In July, Joey won again. He and Busch were among the leaders late in the race when Busch pitted to get fresh tires and Joey decided to stay on the track. Joey won by five car lengths. He drove to victory four more times in the 2008 Nationwide Series.
That summer, Gibbs announced that Joey would replace Tony Stewart in the #20 car for the 2009 Sprint Cup Series. Stewart was leaving to drive for his own team. Meanwhile, Joey would get his feet wet at NASCAR’s highest level driving the #96 car for Hall of Fame Racing. The Hall of Fame counted among its owners ex-NFL quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman, and had a relationship with Gibbs dating back to 2006. Joey made his Sprint debut on September 14 and drove in a total of five races that fall.
Just before heading to Daytona, Joey competed in the 2009 Toyota All-Star Showdown in Irwindale, California, near Los Angeles. He was running second to Peyton Sellers on the last lap when he rode the leader into the wall. Joey crossed the finish line first, but NASCAR disqualified him for dangerous driving. He was upset that the win was taken away and did not apologize to Sellers afterwards. Racing fans didn’t mind his aggressive driving, but they were mad about the cold shoulder he gave Sellers. They knew that Joey would now be a marked man.
MAKING HIS MARK
Joey was still only 18 when he arrived at Daytona in February as a full-fledged NASCAR driver. In Race One of the Gatorade Duel, he hung in with Stewart, Jeff Gordon andJimmie Johnson, barely missing the win. All four drivers were within a half-second of one another on the final lap. In the Daytona 500, Joey crashed on Lap 80. He was trying to avoid Lake Speed, who had lost control coming out of Turn 4. Unfortunately, Joey smashed right into the interior retaining wall, destroying his car and giving him a serious jolt. He walked away from the crash. He finished 43rd.
Joey earned his spurs that winter and spring during a string of lackluster finishes. But he learned a little more about his crew and his competition with each race. At Darlington in May, he led the race for nearly a half hour and wound up finishing ninth. Meanwhile, Joey was catching on with fans. The precocious youngster was voted into the Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and scored another Top 10 finish.
Joey’s big breakthrough came at the end of June in Loudon, New Hampshire. At the Lenox Tools 301, he was leading Stewart and Gordon when the race was called because of rain. It wasn’t the victory he had dreamed about, but it was a victory nonetheless—and at 19, Joey was officially the youngest driver ever to win at NASCAR’s top level.
That was Joey’s lone Sprint Cup victory in 2009. He was unable to crack the Top 12 and qualify for the Chase, but he did manage to stay in the Top 20. Joey notched two more Top 3 finishes and banked more than $5 million in earnings during his first full year.
Among the lowlights of the 2009 season were a pair of incidents with Greg Biffle in October. He and Joey traded paint in back-to-back Nationwide races. Biffle felt that Joey should have apologized after their first encounter. He made his point by banging into him in the second race, at the Auto Club Speedway in California.
Joey won that race—his fifth Nationwide victory of 2009—and as his dad ran to join him in Victory Lane, he gave Biffle the finger in front of thousands of fans. NASCAR pulled his card as punishment.
As the 2009 season ended, NASCAR’s Rookie of the Year award was all but a formality. Having started slow, finished strong, and experienced a year worth of bumps and bruises, Joey showed that a teenager can race with the old guys and more than hold his own.
That expereince helped him as he opened the 2010 season. Joey finished 20th at the Daytona 500. He followed that up with a pair Top 10 finishes, in the Auto Club 500 and then at the Shelby American.
There is no doubt that Joey is a special talent. No NASCAR driver has been this good, this young. In fact, it’s hard to recall a young gun with a brighter future ahead of him. Joey’s nickname is "Sliced Bread." In other words, racing fans think he’s the best thing to come around in a long, long time.
JOEY THE DRIVER
Joey is mature for his age, obviously, but he can also be young and impetuous. He is learning as he goes—not just the tracks, but the hang-ups and habits of his fellow drivers too. Joey has had to earn their respect, and in most cases he has. For some, Joey still must prove that he can be trusted in close quarters. And when he makes mistakes he needs to apologize. It's all part of becoming one of the boys.
When racing folks call Joey a prodigy, often they are talking about the little things. For instance, it takes Joey just a handful of laps around a track to find the correct lines, and he is also good at feeding his team accurate information so they can adjust during a race. Joey controls his car like a veteran. He is quick when he needs to be, but also remarkably patient. Joey will need to be even more patient to win the 400- and 500-mile races.
