How go-karting and Habitat for Humanity are helping Joey Logano transition to new crew
Joey Logano — and all of Team Penske — wasn’t satisfied with finishing 2019 in the top 10. He finished 2018 at the top of the NASCAR Cup Series, claiming his first Drivers’ Championship by winning the final race of the year at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
In 2019, Logano just missed out on a spot in the Championship 4. None of his teammates with Penske came to Homestead with a chance to hoist the Cup, so even though everyone finished in the top 10 the team decided it was time for a change. Logano’s crew chief went to work with Ryan Blaney. Blaney’s crew chief went to work with Brad Keselowski. Keselowski’s crew chief went to work with Logano.
“Musical chairs,” Logano said earlier this week. “I feel like we’re going to be successful no matter what, so I like this is something fresh. It makes you think outside of the box a little bit.”
The new-look Team Penske will make its debut Sunday at 2:30 p.m. when the 2020 Cup Series begins with the Daytona 500. Logano, in the No. 22 Ford Mustang, will start third at Daytona International Speedway after winning a qualifying race Thursday, while Keselowski will start ninth and Blaney will start 27th. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driving the No. 47 Cheverolet Camaro for JTG Daugherty Racing, sits on the pole in Daytona Beach.
The team-wide swap might work because of Penske’s championship pedigree. Logano won the Cup Series in 2018 with crew chief Todd Gordon, who now joins Blaney. Keselowski won the Cup Series in 2012 with crew chief Paul Wolfe, who now joins Logano. Now all three Penske teams have championship experience.
“I was confident that he’s going to have speed and a championship-winning crew chief, and both teams were, so I feel there really wasn’t any risk to doing this,” Logano said of Gordon’s move to join Blaney. “I think it’s only going to make me stronger as a race car driver and I think as a team it’s going to make all of us stronger.”
The timeline for the new teams to get acclimated with each other has been short, though. Penske only decided to do the team-wide shake-up in January, giving the three teams only about a month and a half to get familiar. Although the racers and crews all know each other from being under the Penske umbrella, Logano has made sure to spend plenty of time away from the track and garage with his new crew.
They’ve gone go-karting together. They’ve had massive dinners with the families of all the crew members. Last month, Logano took his entire team out to a Habitat for Humanity build in Concord, North Carolina. Logano does these builds every offseason, so he decided working together in something other than racing would help the chief get to know one another better.
“Everyone worked together as a team and did something that we’re supposed to do,” Logano said. “Everyone’s got to have a ‘Why:’ Why do you race? Why do you go to work? Why do you do what you do? And a lot of times if you can give back and do things for others that can be your ‘Why.’”
Logano hasn’t made a shift like this in almost a decade, since he moved from Joe Gibbs Racing to Penske before the 2013 season and he immediately crashed the top-10 in the final standings for the first time in his career.
At this stage of his career, Logano expects the transition to be even easier. He’s a veteran now and has a better idea of what works for him, and he knows enough about Wolfe to know what his new crew chief wants to do. The hope is it’s a recipe to get Logano back into the Championship 4 after he missed out by one spot in 2019.
“Paul and his team have been in the sport for a long time. I’ve been in the sport for a long time now,” Logano said. “We kind of know what makes you tick. What do you need as an individual to be successful? What do you need as a team to be successful?”
