Akin to many of his peers, including the likes of Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano has always kept his eyes on one prize: winning in NASCAR, come what may. That childhood dream hasn’t wavered, and he has lived it to the hilt. As the three-time Cup champion tallies what the sport has poured into his life, he plans to pay it forward in equal measure.
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He points to the blueprint set by big names who never left the arena after hanging up their helmets. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, and Kevin Harvick stayed in the fold through podcasts, television booths, ownership stakes, and assorted roles that keep their engines humming. Logano intends to follow that path as well.
When asked how he hopes to carry NASCAR’s rich legacy, the 3-time Cup Series champion answered, “There are so many different phases of my career, just like anybody else in the sport. There’s the driving and active piece, and then there’s gonna be at some point when I don’t drive anymore, and what does that look like? I don’t know exactly what that will be.”
“But I do know the definition of a true champion is giving back more than you take, and this sport has given me a lot. It’s given me everything. I definitely want to leave it better than it was when I got here. I can do a lot of that now while I’m still active, and we do that through the driver advisory council a lot. But post-racing, I’ll be involved. I’ll be around in some way because the people before me did that for me, and I should do that for the next generation,” he added.
When drivers step away in their 40s or early 50s, the calendar turns, and physically, they can’t bounce back and put their bodies through the level of strain a top-level driver in NASCAR demands. Yet racers are wired for the rush. They miss the thunder, the thrill they receive at 190 mph, the heat of the hunt. So rather than cutting the cord, they find sensible lanes to stay plugged into the sport that shaped them.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrote that playbook in 2017 after concussions and injuries nudged him out of the cockpit. He moved to the commentary booth, bringing his perspective to the audience in real time.
He already owned an Xfinity Series outfit, JR Motorsports, and retirement allowed him to spend more hours on the shop floor and in the war room. The shift kept him in the mix without asking his body to cash checks it no longer could write.
His impact reached beyond teams and television. Junior also helped revive a string of tracks, most notably North Wilkesboro, a venue that might have slipped into dormancy without his push. That campaign spoke to stewardship more than nostalgia. He gave back more than he received. Logano saw that standard and nodded to the path, signalled his intent to keep the circle unbroken.
