For the third time in seven seasons, Joey Logano bears the honor of being the defending champion of the NASCAR Cup Series.
At age 34, Logano is a wily veteran who has been fortunate enough to represent the sport as its leading voice twice prior. Full-time in NASCAR’s top series since 2009 — now 16 years ago — the Connecticut native has a better comprehension of the magnitude of the responsibility that comes with being the drivers’ top representative.
“I guess I’m more comfortable in the position and understand the opportunity that’s ahead of us as the champion,” Logano said Nov. 22 ahead of the 2024 NASCAR Awards. “There’s a lot of opportunity to take advantage of, whether it’s with the media, growing our sport, growing our race team. … But you don’t want to just waste the opportunity because you don’t know if you’ll ever have it again, right? And they’re really hard to come by. So being the current champion comes with a lot of responsibility, and you don’t want to waste that.”
Logano has long embraced that position. As a young prodigy storming his way up the racing ladder, eventual NASCAR Hall-of-Famer Mark Martin sang Logano’s praises. Logano raced against many NASCAR legends — four-time champion Jeff Gordon and three-time title winner Tony Stewart among them — and eventually started beating them regularly. But it was the examples set by those drivers away from the track that Logano admires most, crediting them for his willingness to be a leader for the sport today.
“I’m only like that because other drivers were like that for me,” Logano said. “And to me, that’s what a true champion is, is somebody that understands that we are here because of the people before us — the media members before you guys, the other drivers before me, the crew chiefs before those crew chiefs, owners before them. All those legends grew the industry that we all reap the benefits of today. But if we don’t do the same thing for the next generation, then our sport will die. That makes me really sad to think that’s even possible, but it is. You can’t just get comfortable and expect everything to keep going the way it is. You’ve got to keep working at it.
“So I look forward to the opportunity to take on that role and help where I can. There’s a lot of questions I’ve asked already, and a lot of things to say, ‘Well, can we do this, or can we do that?’ Or, you know, ‘We could do this a little better next time.’ It’s important to give the feedback back but also be looking to do more as well.”
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