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now and he was placed in a position where it was almost impossi- But the year ended in bitter disappointment when, in the next-to-
ble for him to live up to all the hype. last round of the playoffs, he finished 37th and 40th at Martinsville
and Texas, respectively, to put himself in a must-win position for
“I look at as if Joe Gibbs trained him. He made an awful lot of mis- the penultimate race Phoenix. He came close, finishing third, but
takes and learned a lot from them while he was there – and now I the championship hopes for his breakthrough season were over.
think Roger Penske is reaping all the rewards of that.” He finished sixth in the final standings.

Logano has the benefit of being able to look back on his years Logano won three more races and made the Championship 4
with Gibbs with hindsight now. It helps him see the value of what round in the playoffs again in 2016, finishing second in the points
he went through in his early Cup years. after finishing fourth at Homestead where Jimmie Johnson won to
secure the title.
“It’s really hard when you come in with so much hype,” Logano
said. “But if I wouldn’t have had that hype, I wouldn’t have had “They hurt. They hurt a lot,” Logano said of the years he came
that job anyways, so I don’t think it was a bad thing in any way. ever so close to winning his first championship but came up short.
But I expected to go out there and win as well, and I just got my “And right when you think it’s over, you’ve got to go to the
butt handed to me on a platter. (NASCAR postseason awards) banquet and watch somebody
else give the championship speech, and it hurts all over again.
“It was hard. There were a lot of times that I felt really weak, and
I’d break down. … You know, when you’re confused, you don’t “But it’s motivation to me. I try to find the positives in everything
know how to be better. You’re 18 years old or 19 or 20, and this in life. There’s too much negative in our world sometimes. When
is some pretty big stuff for a teenager to be able to go through. I you’re able to look at things, there’s always a silver lining in there
didn’t know what I was doing.” somewhere. You’ve just got to look for it. Sometimes it’s hard
to find because it’s easy for us to dwell on the bad stuff. Once
Logano is a driver who has always known what he wanted. Now you get past that and you look at what can make you stronger, it
he has a much better idea of what he’s doing and how to go about makes you want to not feel that again.”
getting it.
Yet, for the first time since coming to Penske, in 2017 Logano
His second season with Team Penske, in 2014, his results took suffered what appeared to be a hangover from coming so close
a quantum leap forward as he won five races and also added 16 to winning it all the previous year. He won only one race and led
top-five and 22 top-10 finishes – all new career highs at the time. just 376 laps, his fewest total of laps led since his first Penske
He also led 993 laps. In his four seasons with JGR, he never led campaign. His top-five and top-10 finishes were both his fewest in
more than 190 – and it was 660 more than he led during his first a Penske car. He finished 17th in the points and out of the playoffs
season with Gordon at Penske. altogether for the first time since climbing into the No. 22 car.

Logano made the inaugural Championship 4 race at Home- All of which served as extra motivation for the 2018 season. There
stead-Miami Speedway as 2014 was the first season NASCAR were whispers around the Cup garage coming into the season
introduced the current “knockout rounds” for its playoffs. But that perhaps the magical chemistry displayed earlier by Logano
Logano finished fourth behind eventual champion (and race and his crew chief had faded. But while outsiders thought maybe
winner) Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin, his it had grown stale, Logano and Gordon say they never doubted
former JGR teammate. each other – or that they could get back on top of their game.

Year Three with Penske in 2015 was even more productive. He So much so that they ended up on top of the NASCAR world. To
won six races, including the season-opening Daytona 500, and do so, they had to first look inward and agree to be more flexible
totaled 16 top fives and 22 top 10s while leading 1,431 laps. He in trying new approaches to some of the same old problems.
spent much of the season first or second in the points standings,
winning three playoff races in a row at Charlotte, Kansas and “We just went through a very challenging year (in 2017),” Logano
Talladega. said. “There were a lot of lessons we needed to learn. We just got

18 THE OFFICIAL NASCAR 2019 PREVIEW & PRESS GUIDE