Listen to the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano give his speech at the 2024 NASCAR Awards ceremony in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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00:00First off, I want to say congratulations to all the other champions here tonight.
00:04This is something that's really hard to achieve, whether it's Xfinity, Truck, or Cup.
00:10I think a lot of people in this room understand how hard it is, and it's real special.
00:14For us to get three championships now at Team Penske, and
00:19you look at some of the names, David Pearson, Kel Yarbrough, Lee Petty, Tony Stewart,
00:24Tommy Dabia, it's truly amazing, but the part that really drives me,
00:29and it's the best part about it, is those first 20 minutes when you get out of the car.
00:33Celebrating with the people that you went to battle with, whether that's your team,
00:39your family, your friends, those moments mean so much to me.
00:43My parents were there, Tom and Deb, they're here somewhere.
00:47My sister is here tonight.
00:50Those moments of thinking about when we were a kid, and I got to get a go-kart for
00:56Christmas, and now I'm sitting here as a three-time Cup champion, it's truly incredible.
01:02We were driving in Wednesday night into the racetrack in Phoenix, and
01:06we have a family of five now with my beautiful wife and the three kids are in the backseat.
01:11And we started dreaming a little bit about Sunday night, and said, man, you know what?
01:15We're all going to go up there and get the flag together.
01:18And then the other part was also that we were going to all get in the car together and
01:22drive the race car back into victory lane, which our daughter Amelia was not a fan of that part.
01:26But those are the memories, those are the things that matter so
01:31much, the photo of us walking up there to grab that flag, that's what it's all about.
01:36And I say it all the time, the most important decision you ever make in your life, and
01:41Blaney, you'll understand this in a second, is the person you choose to go to life with, right?
01:48The person that you choose to go to battle with, my wife Brittany, coming up on ten years now.
01:53This year, just right around the corner, she's, thank you, give her a round of applause, she's got to deal with me every day.
02:00She's an incredible person, she pushes me to be better every day.
02:06She fills my blanks where I'm off, and an incredible mom, very selfless person.
02:12So thank you for always being there for us, and I also want to thank all the spouses here tonight.
02:18I understand that when we're gone a lot, and
02:22usually that's when stuff goes wrong, whether it's at home, the house, something breaks.
02:26Kids do kid things, right, they get sick, they get hurt, and we're not there, right?
02:31And so it's a big challenge for everybody here, and that's what makes it so
02:35special tonight for everyone to celebrate together and enjoy that piece of it.
02:40Because it truly takes an army to get through the whole season, it's a long year.
02:45Obviously, we could not be here without a great team led by Paul Wolf.
02:52Paul has a lot of nicknames here recently, but I'm going to go with Honest Paul tonight.
02:57Paul's probably the most honest person I've ever met.
03:01Sometimes the truth hurts, Paul, but it's also what we need as a team.
03:07Not just with me, or our engineers, or our car chief, or Tommy, or whoever.
03:13We hear that in the meetings as well, you're not afraid to speak up.
03:16That's what makes you such a fantastic leader for our race team.
03:18We honestly would not have won, nowhere near the amount of races this year without your strategy,
03:24your attention to detail that matters so much to our race team.
03:27So I'm so grateful to have you on our race team and leading us away.
03:32Yeah, give him a round of applause for that too, why wouldn't we?
03:35To our other leaders on the team, right?
03:39Shaggy, Joe, our engineers, Tommy, our car chief, the details, the pressure that's on you guys as well.
03:46Everybody on the 22 team, one little piece wrong, we're not standing here tonight.
03:52Those details matter so much, and this winning feeling makes all that pressure worth it for sure.
03:57To our pit crew, lots of pressure there as well.
04:01Imagine coming down pit road late in a race, going for a championship, the amount of pressure that's on an athlete like that.
04:06So you guys are true professionals, and it's fun to celebrate with you guys tonight.
04:12To Coleman Presley, my spotter, even more so my best friend.
04:17He's the sounding board, whether it's on the racetrack or off the racetrack.
04:20I don't think I'd do anything in my life without him knowing about it, it seems like.
04:23But you've been a great friend.
04:25Kirstie's here tonight as well.
04:26You guys have been there all the way through with me, so appreciate your friendship.
04:31And then you'd probably ask, well, who can assemble a team this great?
04:35And obviously, that's Mr. Penske sitting down here, his wife Kathy.
04:3950 years, congratulations, I just learned that.
04:43But you assembled over 70,000 Penske associates across the world.
04:48You think about how big that is.
04:51That takes some incredible people to make that happen.
04:54And some of them, Bud Danker, Jonathan Gibson, Walter Zanecki, Greg.
04:59You guys put together just an amazing amount of people that have to all work together in so
05:04many different layers.
05:06It's truly incredible to see that and learn from that every day.
05:10And then here in Mooresville, Tim Sendrick and Travis Geiser, Michael Nelson.
05:14You guys are constantly fighting for that Penske perfection, right?
05:19We all talk about, so hard to achieve.
05:22Sometimes we never achieve it, but we keep striving for it.
05:24And I'm proud to be a part of that team.
05:27How do I come up here and not talk about Roush Yates Engines?
05:32Great fuel mileage, by the way.
05:35That worked out really well for us, quite a bit.
05:39The reliability is second to none.
05:41I know there's a lot of Roush Yates people here tonight.
05:43Doug, I believe, is here.
05:44I believe his mom's here with him, too.
05:46So I just want to say thank you for giving us the engines and
05:50the opportunities to take advantage of some race winning opportunities on the track.
05:55My teammates, Ryan Blaney, Sendrick, I'm trying to find you guys as I'm talking.
06:01Harrison, you guys, they give me a hard time.
06:03They call me the old guy, but you guys do an amazing job every week.
06:09You push me way out of my comfort zone, which is what I need.
06:13So thanks for being great teammates and being open and talking things out.
06:17Obviously, cannot do this without sponsors.
06:20And when you look at that car behind us, it's iconic.
06:23Mattel and Pennzoil, 12 years ago, you guys took the chance on a driver
06:29that didn't really have a whole bunch going for him outside of some Xfinity wins.
06:32And here we are that many years later with three championships and a bunch of wins.
06:38The relationship is so much deeper than just a sticker on the car.
06:42The lubricants that are developed for our race car really gives us a true advantage.
06:48Also, the amount of work we do at the Joey Logano Foundation together and
06:52the relationships in general away from all of this really means so much.
06:55So thank you guys for being here tonight.
06:58To Ford, it's a lot of fun.
07:02We're in Victory Lane and Jim Farley's out there.
07:04And talking about a true racer, he's the CEO of Ford and
07:08he absolutely loved being at Victory Lane, fighting together, enjoying that.
07:12Obviously, with Mark Rushbrook leading the Ford performance team,
07:15he doesn't give us the tools and the resources we need to be able to go out there and
07:21make the most of every race we got.
07:23To Hunt Brothers Pizza, Scott, Julie, you guys are here tonight as well.
07:27First year together, I don't know if every year goes this smooth, but we'll take it.
07:34You know what goes good with pizza though, guys, right?
07:37An ice cold Coca-Cola, you should know that by now.
07:4116 years, you guys have been with me from the very beginning.
07:44Rookie season, being part of the Coca-Cola racing family.
07:47Thank you so much for all the support over the years.
07:49AAA, Auto Trader, they are true authentic partners to us.
07:53I'm a car person.
07:54We're getting ready to go on a road trip, so I'm sure at some point I'll be calling AAA.
07:58So thank you for being there all the time, on and off the track.
08:01To Joey Logano Racing, the team there, you guys, Warren, Foley, you guys do a fantastic job keeping all the details together for me.
08:08Allowing me to stay focused on what the big project is here of winning trophies and
08:13capitalizing on that when we were able to do that.
08:16I will say, people keep asking me, how the heck did you guys win the championship this year?
08:23And to me, and it's not a golden horseshoe like Martin said earlier, okay?
08:28We did get a lot of opportunities though, and life's really all about what you do with the opportunities.
08:33You don't know when they're going to come your way, but are you ready to take advantage of that when it gets there?
08:38And that's not easy to do.
08:40When I think about some of our wins where the big opportunities came, I got to think of Nashville, five overtimes.
08:46We had all the opportunity to capitalize there, we took that.
08:50Vegas on a fuel mileage win to lock ourselves into the championship four and
08:55give us a two week advantage to be more prepared than anybody else when we got there.
08:59We capitalized on all those things and I'm so proud to be part of a team that understands that.
09:05Because sometimes, I'm not the fastest race car driver out there, but I got the best team around me that really knows how to take advantage of opportunity and handle that pressure correctly.
09:14So I'm so proud of that.
09:17To NASCAR, I want to thank you guys for giving me the opportunity to live out my dream.
09:23Not just for me though, but for all of us here and for our fans.
09:27I know this is a lot harder than sometimes it looks and everybody loves to complain.
09:33But you guys do a fantastic job at running our sport and letting us live out our dream.
09:37I also want to thank the legends of our sport.
09:40I see Richard Petty sitting there, I know Donny Allison, I was talking to him here tonight.
09:45You guys have built an incredible sport for us in the next generation and I hope I can help leave it in just as good of hands when I'm done.
09:52But I appreciate what you guys have built.
09:54The Hall of Fame here, we're here tonight, we're all here because of the legends that have really built this thing for us.
10:00But when I think about what we do on the racetrack sometimes, it's kind of pointless, right?
10:07We drive around in circles just to end up in the same place at the end of the day.
10:10You kind of think about that, it's kind of goofy.
10:13But if you take the opportunity that God's given us to talk to people,
10:19to inspire others, to live a life of generosity, that's when these scenarios and
10:25driving in circles isn't just driving in circles anymore.
10:28And I think this sport coming together most recently, and I know Greg Biffle was just up here a second ago.
10:35But when you think about what happened in Western North Carolina, I'd say probably at least one person at each table around here,
10:43probably made a huge impact at some point for the Hurricane Helene victims.
10:48I saw a lot of people up there helping out.
10:51And that to me is probably something that I'm most proud of this industry and
10:59I'm proud of our team, but I'm most proud to be a part of a sport that really understands we're part of a larger plan.
11:08With that, I just want to say Happy Thanksgiving to everybody, Merry Christmas, and we'll see you at the class soon.
11:14Thank you guys.