“I think this was a major mistake,” opined Rusty Wallace as Joey Logano was signed by Team Penske in 2013. Now a withstanding three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, Wallace could not have been farther from what was to come.
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Following the suspension of A.J. Allmendinger for drug use in 2012, Roger Penske’s racing outfit had been searching for a replacement for his #22 car.
Sam Hornish Jr. had come in as a temporary fill-in, with his performances good enough to hold the team up. This irked Wallace when it was announced that Logano from Joe Gibbs Racing would be taking the seat next year.
He said on ESPN during the coverage of a Nationwide Series race back in 2012, “Think Sam Hornish has done a great job. I am disappointed in Penske Racing for making this decision. I think it was an absolute sidestep.”
“He should’ve stayed in the 22 car and everybody in the garage area’s been saying the same thing. Joey Logano’s a great guy, but Hornish deserves to stay in the 22 car,” said Wallace at the time.
Thinking of how important that decision was to give Logano the 22 in 2013 and the effects it led to
"Sam Hornish should've stayed in the 22 car and everybody in the garage area's been saying the same thing. Joey Logano's a great guy, but Hornish deserves to stay in the 22 car." pic.twitter.com/0id7YXyEQN
— nascarman (@nascarman_rr) November 11, 2024
Fast forward to today, the negativity against Logano since he won the 2024 Cup championship has also been unprecedented. Many don’t believe he deserves a third title considering how luck gave him a huge hand. What’s interesting is that Logano has been dealing with such criticism from the early stages of his career.
So, what exactly led Wallace to these thoughts? In the time that he drove Penske’s #22 entry, Hornish brought in several top-15 finishes that could have ended better with a tad bit of luck on his side.
He also had good chemistry with the crew and its crew chief Todd Gordon. His best finish of fifth came at Watkins Glen. Logano, on the other hand, was nothing but a struggling youngster with only glimpses of promise.
How Logano proved everyone including Wallace wrong
Logano’s four years with Joe Gibbs Racing reeked of his amateur/rookie status in the sport. He never fully reached the potential he came into the sport with and struggled to fill the shoes of his predecessor, Tony Stewart.
This is one of the reasons why Coach Gibbs decided to do away with him that season. In later interviews, the driver mentioned that getting fired felt terrible and that he never wanted to experience it again.
However, that event ended up being the best thing that happened to him. Logano is a three-time Cup Series champion today and at the age of 34 and still has a long career ahead of him.
He has won 36 races throughout his career and already serves as one of the greatest the sport has seen. Ironically, his numbers are far ahead of those that Wallace earned when he was a driver on the same team.
