There has long been a belief that racers from New England face an uphill battle reaching NASCAR, largely because the region is not viewed as a traditional racing hotbed. That idea, however, could not be further from the truth. New England is steeped in racing history and is home to several notable racetracks. Joey Logano, a Connecticut native, has taken it upon himself to help set the record straight.
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Earlier this year, Logano was asked if he had to travel around a lot to get to race tracks owing to the seemingly minimal infrastructure in Connecticut. He replied by pointing out that the influence of motorsports there is far larger than what people think.
“The New England car culture and racing culture is real. It’s much bigger,” the Team Penske driver said.
Certain areas, such as New York and Boston, do lack racing activity on the roads, but that is made up for once you move a bit outside the major cities. Logano continued, “If you get a little bit out of those areas, there’s some great racetracks. I mean, there’s Stafford, Thompson, and you know, we are racing in New Hampshire. I only lived up there for the first 10 years of my life.”
“So, I was racing quarter midgets up there and some other stuff. But then we moved to Atlanta as a family, and there’s a lot of racing down there, too. But it’s fun going back up that way now because there are a few racers from up there.
“You’d be surprised how many people from New England are working on our race team. I’d say the majority of the people are from up north.”
The big problem that New England drivers have
New England is home to several excellent asphalt and dirt tracks. Yet, for some reason, the region has never been well represented at the top level of the sport. Logano and Ryan Preece, both Connecticut natives, are the only New England drivers competing in NASCAR’s premier tier.
This is because any driver who wants to make it big in NASCAR has to move to Charlotte at some point.
Logano explained this, “You have to move to Charlotte if you want to do it right because that’s where all the race teams are. So, yeah, you have to move, and that makes it tough, but when you come home, you want to be able to show what you can do. You feel like you’re representing everyone up here.”
Compared to other regions, New England has been underrepresented in the Cup Series. Hopefully, that will change in the future.
