HAMPTON – Joey Logano was a 9-year-old leadfoot in training the first time he saw the Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1999. He remembers that moment every time he drives onto the property – and drives around it at a ridiculous pace, sometimes winning wild races.
It’s a story he tells with a big, wide smile: “I have more memories at this racetrack than anywhere I’ve ever been,” he said Sunday, after winning the Quaker State 400 and getting a big leg up on NASCAR’s playoffs.
Picture a family in a motor home, looking to move from Connecticut to somewhere they could feed the sporting appetites of a racing son and an ice skating daughter.
“We drove by Atlanta Motor Speedway and said, ‘Let’s pull in,’” Logano recalled. “We were just trying to figure this whole thing out. We drove through the tunnel (into the track) and it was, ‘Oh, my God, this place is incredible.”
That very night he was racing a little Bandolero car on the AMS infield track. Six months later, his dad bought that car as well as a condo at the track (unit No. 805 if you must know) since they were going to spend so much of his kid’s teenage years there. Yeah, you could say the Loganos were all in.
“Driving the quarter-mile track, I kept thinking I just want to go straight one day and get on the big track,” Logano said.
Here’s where the story gets all poetic. They did let the boy who dreamed big drive straight onto the big track, and danged if once he was there if Logano didn’t establish himself as one of the primest of primetime drivers in NASCAR. Only fitting that status was once more reinforced Sunday at the track that seeded so many of his career fantasies.
In this latest race, the on-track action was impossibly close, raising the question of whether it was humanly possible to drive 400 miles while holding your breath.
“That was wild and chaotic and a lot of fun, honestly,” exalted Christopher Bell, as enthusiastic as you’ll ever hear a fourth-place finisher.
Said Logano: “There’s not a moment during those 400 miles where you go – whew – and take a break. It’s crazy the whole time. ... It’s incredible that we don’t wreck more than we do. It’s absolutely amazing how good everybody is.”
And the weirdness was palpable. Ryan Blaney’s car, sponsored by some outfit named Dent Wizard ran up front at the end, despite the driver’s side all mashed in by a mid-race confrontation. Ironically advertising the irrelevance of many large dents. Later the yellow flag came out 10 laps from the finish after an advertising banner floated free from the trackside fence and came to rest on the track. The technology on the track at Atlanta Motor Speedway overloads the senses, yet it all comes to a wrenching halt when some zip ties fail?
Through it all, with the Quaker State 400 lining up for one last overtime sprint to the finish Sunday, who do you think was going to jump up and seize the big moment here at the start of NASCAR’s playoffs.
Chalk up another one for the Condo Kid.
The overtime sprint was set up by a wreck in the final laps, which itself ended in the exclamation point of another crash. The least surprising part of the day was that it was Logano, pushed by willing Penske teammate Blaney, in first at the conclusion. In second was the winner of the spring race here, Daniel Suarez.
Logano’s pedigree is unmatched by anyone else in these playoffs – two NASCAR Cup championships (2018 and 2022). And he’s highly motivated. Missing out on the playoffs last season left him with a year-long rumble in his stomach that required feeding.
His Team Penske was the big winner in the playoff shuffle Sunday. The 16 playoff cars will be pared to 12 in two weeks, and eventually down to four on championship Sunday. With his win, Logano automatically advances to the Round of 12. With all the points he picked up along the race, defending Cup champion and third-place finisher Blaney took the playoff points lead.
The big victim was the points leader coming into the day.
If this driving ‘round and ‘round thing doesn’t work out for Kyle Larson, he might set up an infield booth and read fans’ fortunes every week for $10 a pop. He seems to have the gift of foresight.
As the playoff points leader, Larson this week fretted over starting the 10-race postseason at Atlanta. Called it a “sketchy place,” meaning that there was a high probability of getting into a wreck, not getting carjacked.
So, of course, you know the first driver who was walking out of the infield care center Sunday.
As an incident-free first stage was nearing the end about 85 miles in, Larson entered a turn and it was as if some invisible hand swept him up the track and into the wall. “I don’t know what happened,” he said afterward, confused by his fate.
No coming back from that one. And just like that, Larson dropped to 10th in points and on the bubble of elimination.
By contrast, Sunday was the perfect merging of setting and moment for Logano.
His confidence bubbled over at the end. “When it’s playoff time, it’s our time,” he declared.
“When we get to playoff time, worrying about if Joey Logano is going to be performing where we need him to be is the last thing on my mind,” said his crew chief, Paul Wolfe. “You know when it’s playoff time he’s going to show up and give you all he’s got and handle any situation. He thrives on this. He loves big moments like this.”
One more Atlanta memory to close on.
He was 14 this time, and had talked his way onto the track to run a few laps in a borrowed Cup car. He was given a very specific, very slow – in his mind – pace that he could not exceed.
“It was the final lap and my dad said screw it, Joe, just go. They’re going to throw us out, they’re going to black flag you, go until it runs out of gas. That’s how I grew up, guess that explains a lot,” Logano laughed. “So we got thrown out but it was a cool memory.
“We’ve been thrown out of here a few times.
“But they can’t throw me out today.”
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