How a “Gift From God” Saved Joey Logano During the Most Stressful Time in His Career

Early in his career Joey Logano had a rather tumultuous sequence of events that nearly ended his stay in the Cup Series. This was a time before he was nestled in the number 22 car of Team Penske.

It had just been a couple of years with Joe Gibbs Racing, but there were speculations about him being replaced soon enough.

While Logano contemplated his future, an opportunity opened up for the young gun at Team Penske. The two-time Cup champion recently opened up on how he coped with what was perhaps the most stressful moment of his career.

Joey Logano explains how he coped with his most stressful time in NASCAR

While speaking on the Sirius XM NASCAR podcast, Logano mentioned, “It was the most stressful time of my life professionally, because you start hearing the rumors. Matt Kenseth is coming over in the #20 car and I am driving the 20.”

“I am like ‘Oh my God! What am I going to do.’ And so you start hearing the rumors, most of the times you hear a rumor there is some truth behind it. I wasn’t told about this first thing. But I was smart enough to put two to two together…”

Logano added how eventually Kenseth’s news became official regarding his joining Joe Gibbs Racing from the 2012 season. He believed he would either end up racing for JGR or Petty in the Xfinity Series. But to his luck, “All of a sudden the #22 opened up and that was for me a gift from god.”

😥 @joeylogano dishes on “the most stressful (time) of (his) life professionally” in the Cup Series:

🗣️ “That was, for me, a gift from God, that worked out the way it did.”

More on his early days in Cup from “Behind The Wheel” this week ⬇️

🎧 → https://t.co/oek7E77UMS pic.twitter.com/ER5hYivqYd

— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) October 26, 2023

Logano explains how Team Penske helped him succeed

Speaking further, the two-time Cup Series champion discussed the work environment and team mentality with his then-new team. He remained proud of the people who worked there and has enjoyed the atmosphere ever since.

He then added how, in his last race with JGR, he was saying goodbye to everyone and how it felt surreal. Logano had been the with team since his teens, so by this point in time, leaving the team was an emotional experience since he knew everyone in the garage.

At the end of the day, Logano claimed both of his titles with Team Penske, so it is understandable why Logano feels at home with the team.