As he climbed into his No. 22 Team Penske Ford for the nal race
of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup season, oey Logano
had some prophetic words for Daniel Lynch, his interior mechanic.
much of the season rst or second in the points standings,
winning three playoff races in a row at Charlotte, Kansas and
Talladega.
uck to our ways. e felt like, This is what worked last year in
2016 and we almost won the Championship then. But then
you go to the next season and you get spanked. e needed to
take a step back and say, kay, we need to think things over.
The rebound started maybe four or ve races before the Playoffs
in 2017, and its been a slow but steady climb back to the top.
Its just so cray to think about. e dropped like an elevator and
we took the ight of stairs back to the top, man.
To be able to do that, and ghting together with the whole race
team not just the two of us in myself and Todd means a lot.
You make a little gain here, a little gain here, a little gain there.
And all of a sudden, were Champions the next year. hat a ght.
There were skirmishes along the way, including one with Truex
at Martinsville in last years Playoffs when Logano used the
oldschool bumpandrun to move Truex out of the way for the
win that punched his ticket into the Championship 4. Truex was
furious, stating afterward of Logano, He may have won the battle,
but he aint winning the damn war. Im not going to let him win it.
True to his new and more successful form, Logano did not issue
an apology.
Im a hard racer, he told reporters. I dont think thats a secret
to anyone and we are here to win a Championship. This was
our shot to get to the Championship 4, maybe our only shot. So,
we had to make it happen.
allace said he thinks the unapologetic, harddriving approach
Logano has adopted is just what the sport needs in an era when
many of the drivers are close friends away from the track.
ne thing about him is that he doesnt appear to care much
about what the other drivers think of him and he sure hates to
lose, allace said. You saw that in the Playoffs. He didnt apologi
e for it. He just kept saying he did what he felt he had to do.
Some drivers these days think too much about whether or not
theyre doing the fair thing he just goes for it. That might cause
some ill will in the garage and maybe will get him taken out
himself somewhere down the line, but you have to admire him for
living in and seiing the moment when its there. Its an old-school
mentality somewhat lacking in the sport these days.
allace said its hard to believe Logano is only 28 years old. He
wont turn 29 until this May. And that, allace added, is likely bad
news for Loganos fellow Cup competitors.
oey is what I would call a young veteran, allace added. Hes
incredibly young, yet hes been racing so long that I expect him to
just keep getting better like a Kyle Busch has done and continues
to do. You look at oey Logano and youre like, h, hes been
here forever. Then you look up how old he is and youre like, Really,
hes only 28 His best very well may be yet to come.
/icondirect.com