Star turn: Logano fulfills promise with Daytona 500 triumph
He didn’t have the nostalgia factor like Jeff Gordon. He didn’t have the popularity factor like Dale Earnhardt Jr. He didn’t have the winning pedigree like Jimmie Johnson.
But none of that mattered to Joey Logano in the end. He proved to have the best car and held on to the top spot in a green-white-checkered finish for his first Daytona 500 victory on a perfect Sunday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway.
It’s the biggest win for one of NASCAR’s most promising drivers who has long been billed as a future star of the sport.
“Has anyone heard who won the Daytona 500?” Logano said, chuckling to begin his postrace news conference.
“It’s an amazing feeling. I can’t really put it into words. It’s something you can’t describe.”
Winning stock car racing’s marquee race is another signal that Logano is well on his way to becoming a household name, even though it might have taken longer than most expected. Still, Logano is only 24 and is now the second-youngest driver in series history to win the Daytona 500 behind only Trevor Bayne, who won it in 2011.
All of this comes after Logano had a career year in 2014 with five wins, including April’s Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, and was one of the “final four” drivers for the series championship going into the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway last year.
So, yes, it’s fair to say that Logano has finally arrived.
“I think it’s no secret that I probably got thrown into this series too young — inexperienced, didn’t know what I had to do,” Logano said. “But you just have to roll with the punches, and it turns out to be the best.”
Logano did that, particularly during some action-filled final laps to spice up what had been a mostly uneventful race. The first signs of life came with 25 laps left when a caution flag came out for Ryan Blaney’s car smoking on the back stretch.
On the restart with 19 laps left, Logano led, followed by Johnson, Clint Bowyer and Earnhardt. Earnhardt essentially took himself out of the mix at this point, getting caught in the middle and falling from fourth to 15th.
“I made a really bad decision on that restart,” said Earnhardt, last year’s winner who finished third.
“You can’t afford to do that. I got shuffled back and lost a ton of spots. I’m just really disappointed because the Nationwide team gave me the best car and we should have won the race.”
The lead changed hands multiple times over those final laps from Logano to Denny Hamlin to Martin Truex Jr.
But Logano had regained the top spot on Lap 191, and stayed there the rest of the way. It got interesting in the final laps when Justin Allgaier wrecked with three laps to go, setting up the green-white-checkered finish.
The race was red-flagged for 6 minutes, 22 seconds to clear Allgaier’s car and debris, but the delay didn’t bother Logano. He had a flawless restart and held off a charging Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Earnhardt before a wreck behind them forced NASCAR to end the race under caution.
“You’ve got a 50-50 shot of winning it when you’re on the green-white-checkered on the front row,” said Hamlin, who finished fourth. “Our line didn’t form up, and it’s typically whatever line gets organized most usually goes forward on these green-white-checkers. We came up a little short.”
Said Harvick, the runner-up: “I really thought everything on our Budweiser/Jimmy John’s Chevrolet was lined up pretty well coming down the backstretch. I was trying to back up to Junior and get a run so we were lined up with a little distance coming off of Turn 4.”
In the end, nobody could overtake Logano.
The caution came after Gordon was clipped by Austin Dillon and spun out on the backstretch, causing an eight-car pileup. That dropped Gordon to a 33rd-place finish after he began the day as the pole-sitter and led a race-high 87 laps.
But Gordon wasn’t disappointed with how his final Daytona 500 ended. Instead, he smiled and soaked it all in.
“This was an amazing week and an amazing day,” Gordon said. “I am just in a different place that is so foreign to me, but so incredible. To just be taking it all in and enjoying every moment. Yeah, right now, I’m a little bit sad this is my final Daytona 500, but I’m more upset we didn’t have a shot at winning there at the end.”
Winning a fourth Daytona 500 would have been special and fitting for Gordon, of course, but it might not have been as significant as Logano’s first. After all, this is a guy who has been hyped for greatness since he was 15, only to see his career hit a crossroads after the 2012 season when he was 21.
Logano lost his ride with Joe Gibbs Racing and fortunately caught on with Team Penske. It’s proven to be a win-win for Logano and Penske.
“The switch over to Team Penske was the best move of my career,” Logano said. “It was an opportunity for me to regroup, be who I wanted to be as an adult and not as an 18-year-old kid anymore. Just go out there and work hard.”
Said team owner Roger Penske: “To me, it’s paid off in spades for us. When he joined the team, he won races. You saw what he did last year. This is just the start of a career for a guy who’s gonna be at the top for a long time.”
Drew Davison, 817-390-7760
This story was originally published February 22, 2015 at 7:06 PM with the headline "Star turn: Logano fulfills promise with Daytona 500 triumph."