Joey Logano Reveals How Making Cup Debut at 18 ‘Broke His Career’

Three times NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano has shared his thoughts on how challenging his early years in the elite division was.

Joey Logano Reveals How Making Cup Debut at 18 ‘Broke His Career’

Joey Logano (Via @joeylogano/X)

Team Penske Racing’s three times Cup Series champion Joey Logano is one of the most accomplished and longest running racers in the history of the sport. One unique aspect of his racing career was how young he made his debut, as his first Cup race was back in 2008 when he was just 18, earning him the nickname “sliced bread.”

He made his full-time debut next-season and spent four years with Joe Gibbs Racing, his first team. It was a really challenging time for the racer, as he could only score two wins and 16 top 5s from 145 starts. JGR was forced to let him leave after he consistently got his b*** kicked, as the veteran admitted recently on MF show, making the period more tough.

On one hand, it was great for my career, and the other hand, I almost broke my career because I did get to the Cup level so young. And I was so full of myself because I was a prodigy, right? … I drank the Kool-Aid, and then I got to the Cup level and I raced against everybody that was equally or more talented than me, and I got my b*** kicked.

Joey Logano said via MF Show.

But unlike many drivers in his situations, Joey Logano was fortunate to find a seat at Team Penske Racing and with the support from 2012 champion Brad Keselowski, he became a dominant force. They were able to grow together as Roger Penske’s team was going through a transition as the time and that helped him build a Hall of Fame worthy career.

Just by the grace of God… the best possible scenario opened up for me. I needed to walk into a place where the team was built around me. It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, this is a two-time winning championship team that knows how to do everything and you need to blend into what we’re doing.’ It was like, ‘We’re down, and you’re down. We need to figure something out together.

Joey Logano added.
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Joey Logano shared his expectations about Sunday’s North Wilkesboro race

The NASCAR community is at North Wilkesboro this weekend for the first point-paying race at the venue since the All-Star race. He expects the race to playout exactly the way it did last time when they racer at the venue, with the tire degradation playing a key role in who would come out victorious.   

Joey Logano (via Imagn)
Joey Logano (via IMAGO)

I don’t think much will change [from the previous All Star races]. Obviously, there will be more cars on the track and the rubber build-up may be a little bit different than what we’ve had there, just because there are more cars pounding the rubber into the racetrack, so it might change the lines over time, but I don’t think it will be much different.

Joey Logano said.

Further talking about the point, the veteran asserted that Sunday’s event won’t be a make-or-break race for his team. This assertion came despite the struggle throughout the season while his teammate Ryan Blaney is running upfront challenging for the title.

I don’t think it’s a make-or-break race, but when you have opportunity tracks like that where you typically run well, you just have to make sure you capitalize on the opportunities that are sitting there.

Joey Logano added.

The comments from the Team Penske veteran shows he doesn’t have much hope for this No:22 Ford Mustang team this week. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the star driver in the coming days.

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