It's time to jump on the Joey Logano bandwagon
It’s time to finally become a believer in Joey Logano.
He’s no longer a driver who might reach his potential someday nor a driver who was just not as good as advertised. He has five wins this year and appears poised to compete for a championship. Take a look at preseason picks (
mine for instance, which didn't even have him in the Chase) and this could still be considered a little bit of a surprise.
Logano will quickly point out that it shouldn’t be a surprise. He had a breakout year in 2013, his first at Penske after four years of being at first meek and intimidated and then dismissed by Joe Gibbs Racing when he was just coming into his own.
But there was just something about those first four years that kept people from thinking he was capable of a five-win season and vying for a title. It wasn’t that he didn’t win right away, it was that he rarely came even close to winning right away. Yes, he was 18 when he started in Cup, but shouldn’t the talent have been displayed earlier? And why should anyone have thought that he would become much tougher and refuse to get pushed around?
There were signs that JGR didn’t have the best support system for Logano. Crew chief Greg Zipadelli probably wasn’t the best fit after having such success with the hard-nosed Tony Stewart. And sponsor Home Depot was a mediocre fit at best in having a teenager trying to be the spokesman for housewares and appliances. It all created an atmosphere of not when would Logano be successful but instead when would Logano be voted off the island.
He eventually was replaced by Matt Kenseth, a move announced in 2012 when JGR couldn’t find sponsorship to keep Logano. That is when Brad Keselowski lobbied Roger Penske to hire Logano for the ride left open when AJ Allmendinger got fired for failing a drug test.
Penske listened to his driver. And all of a sudden, Logano had a place that had confidence in him.
“I have to thank J.D. and Joe (Gibbs) for giving him the time, kind of getting it ready for us,” Roger Penske quipped. “I probably have to send him a check.”
Penske obviously won't send Gibbs a check, and to be honest, many questioned whether he had made the right decision when he decided to hire Logano.
Logano is showing that it takes time to learn Sprint Cup cars, especially if a driver has limited Nationwide experience. He shows that it might be smart that if a driver has shown the ability to win — Logano had won 18 Nationwide races while at JGR, including nine in 2012, amid his Cup struggles — that the driver will eventually win at the Cup level.
The fact is that Logano now has a little bit of a swagger. It’s still an awkward swagger, but forgive him, he’s just 24 years old.
He’s still young. And anyone who doesn’t take him seriously after he has won this year at Texas, Richmond, Bristol, New Hampshire and Kansas — five tracks that have little in common — is making a big mistake.
from here
