Joey Logano was able to appreciate watching Ryan Blaney celebrate last month at the NASCAR Awards in Nashville, his teammate succeeding him as the Cup Series champion to keep the title in Team Penske’s possession. That appreciation came with a light-hearted warning from one champ to another, with Logano telling Blaney from the stage not to get too comfortable.
By Zack Albert, NASCAR.com, Photo by Meg Oliphant, Getty Images
“We’ll go for three in a row next year,” Logano told the crowd at the Music City Center. “It’s my turn, so enjoy it. My turn’s next year.”
Still, there’s a kernel of truth to every tongue-in-cheek joke, and Logano said he’s every bit as driven to vie for his third Cup Series crown with the No. 22 Ford team when next season fires up in February. But there was also a measure of grace as he noted Blaney’s growth into a champion in his eighth full season at the Cup Series level.
“We’ve all seen the amount of speed that he’s had his whole career, like just raw speed,” Logano said. “The kid’s quick as can be. But it seemed like it took a minute for the race-crafting to meet up to the talent that he has. And really, I think in the last seven weeks of what he was able to put together was exceptional — really, really good. And he put them both together, and now I’ll tell you, he’s gonna be tough to beat for a long time, now that he’s got confidence on his side, he’s done it already. He’s gonna be tough for a long time.”
Blaney’s title run has added to team owner Roger Penske’s remarkable recent spate of success, something that Logano has regularly fed. In the last six years, Team Penske has won 12 championships and accumulated 148 victories across four sanctioning bodies – in NASCAR, IndyCar, IMSA and Supercars competition.
Of that total, Logano of Middletown, CT’has added two Cup Series crowns of his own during that span, plus 16 wins – 14 in Cup and a pair in Xfinity. That overall mission, Logano says, starts at the top with Penske, who has long made thoughtful investments into the personnel who make the organization go – “human capital,” as Logano put it.
“It’s just the type of people we are, honestly, I think is what it is. You put a bunch of winners around each other, you’re gonna win,” Logano said. “I said it last year in my speeches, you can’t fly like an eagle when you’re working with a bunch of turkeys, and there’s a lot of eagles that work in that building. If you believe in the saying, ‘you are who you hang out with,’ you’re going to become that way, too. That’s what culture is, right? That’s what we’ve built around there.”
Logano added a victory to the company tally last season, converting a dominant run from the pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March. The win clinched his return to the Cup Series Playoffs, where he absorbed a first-round exit after a race-ending crash in the Round of 16 elimination event at Bristol.
“I’m not sure I’m over it yet,” Logano said. “That might be the good thing about it.”
And if the 33-year-old veteran needed more incentive for a third Cup Series title for 2024, an early appearance on the Nashville stage – well before Blaney’s gala-concluding speech – may provide the extra boost.
“A little more angry. I mean, honestly, that’s what the banquet does to you,” Logano said. “If you’re not the 12 team, nobody else wants to be here. I mean, this is what it’s about. It’s about the champion. It should be about the champion when you come to the banquets. They should be celebrated, but I can tell you right now, when you sit down there and you watch someone else be celebrated, it’s the most motivating thing you can ever ask for. So you come here and you leave a little mad, but motivated to go up there and do something better.”
