Joey Logano has been in the NASCAR arena for over 17 years and has already won the NASCAR Cup championship thrice, with two titles clinched in the past three years. He began his career behind the wheel as a quarter midget racer before climbing the ranks to NASCAR. His transition into professional motorsports has been both fruitful and relatively smooth. However, he recently shed light on the hurdles that young hopefuls face nowadays when aspiring to enter the motorsports arena.
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During a discussion with Greg Olsen at Youth Inc., Logano delved into the complexities that novices encounter when trying to break into motorsports. He contrasted it with more accessible sports, where the initial investment might be as simple as purchasing a basketball or a football unlike buying a racecar, which is quite expensive.
Logano explained, “It’s very complex. On top of that what kind of car should I get well and then how much air do I put in the tires, what gear do I put in the car; you have no clue.”
Logano also brought up a personal anecdote involving his son, Joseph, to illustrate the initial hurdles newcomers face in motorsports. He recounted how, during Joseph’s first few races, he found himself at the racetrack feeling out of his depth, given the stark differences between the smaller vehicles his son was racing and the cars he was accustomed to during his starting phase. The unfamiliarity forced him to reacquaint himself with many of the basics.
Logano emphasized the learning curve for budding racers, noting the parental involvement in the early stages of a racing career not only for moral and logistical support but also to handle the significant financial demands of the sport.
When Logano revealed intriguing details about his decision to become a race car driver
Logano, the son of a high school sports enthusiast, Tom Logano, who excelled in both baseball and basketball, admitted that he did not inherit his father’s athletic prowess for traditional sports. In a revealing 2014 interview, he even explained his foray into racing at seven stemmed from his inability to perform in any other sport.
Logano’s early years were also marked by stints on ice hockey skates. Growing up in Middletown, Connecticut, he balanced his time between ice rinks and racetracks. The thrill of speeding cars eventually overpowered the appeal of skates, sticks, and pucks.
Logano reminisced about his hockey days, noting he played for four or five years, but as his racing commitments intensified, he found himself missing numerous games, compelling him to choose between his two loves, and he eventually went with racing.
He shared, “I sucked at everything else! I tried baseball. I wasn’t very good at that. It was really bad. I’ll rephrase it. It was really bad. I played hockey for a while.” He also said that while he had fun playing ice hockey, he was a much better racecar driver. Ultimately, that would have significantly contributed to his decision to stick with racing instead of heading down a different path.
