Back in 2008, an 18-year-old Joey Logano made his NASCAR Cup Series debut at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, becoming the first driver born in the nineties to race at the NASCAR top level. Fast forward 17 years, and he racked up 37 Cup series wins along with three championships, cementing his spot among racing’s elite.

Known for his aggressive driving and clutch moves, he’s a serious contender every time he hits the track. Nicknamed ‘Sliced Bread’ by former NASCAR driver Randy Lajoie, he thought that Joey would be one of the best stock car drivers ever, and the Team Penske driver lived up to it. But beneath the roar of the engines and the flash of victory, Logano reveals aside most don’t see—this isn’t about fun anymore.

Logano sees the bigger picture of racing

NASCAR has long marketed itself as a sport driven by passion and adrenaline. But for Logano, who’s spent nearly 2 decades climbing to the top of the stock car racing, driving at this level is no joyride. It’s a high-stakes, full-throttle grind where fun isn’t the point—victory is. In a recent interview with Frontstretch, Logano touches on this point, laughing at the beginning but carrying a serious message with it.

Joey Logano said ahead of the race at Nashville on Sunday, “I don’t do it for fun. I don’t look to have fun; I’m not disappointed if I didn’t have fun today. It’s not the expectation; the expectation is to try to win and do that and then they won’t have fun if that’s the case. That’s how I view it.” It is a clear window into the mind of the Penske driver – someone who knows exactly what is riding on every decision he makes behind the wheel. Logano isn’t on the track to enjoy the battle position, not to swap paint just for the thrill of it. He’s there to win.

What’s more? That win doesn’t just belong to him—it belongs to the crew guys, depending on the person; the engineers are banking on performance incentives, and the sponsor is looking at brand exposure. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like cars; I like it. But when you get to this level, you don’t do it for fun because there’s a lot on the line. Do I want to go racing for fun? Sure. And when I want to do that, I’ll jump in a go-kart and I’ll go do that for fun with my buddies. But when you get to this level and you’re racing for people’s bonuses, there’s a lot more on the line than doing this type of stuff for fun.”

From the moment he climbed into a go-kart, Joey was tearing up the track. By age 7, he was already stacking up wins, and by 18, he made history as the youngest ever Xfinity series winner. Joey burst onto the scene as a teenage prodigy—winning came easily, and he expected that streak to continue in the cup series. “I would just show up,” he told Greg Olsen in January 2025. But after being thrust into the number 20 car at Joe Gibbs Racing in his debut season, reality hits hard. “I jumped in the thing, and the guys I thought couldn’t drive a lick were whooping my a—,” Logano admitted.

Struggling to keep up, he learned how to lose for the first time. “By the end of my contract, I was seeing progress, but it wasn’t good enough.” Getting dropped from JGR became a turning point – a team Penske, Logano reinvented himself, transforming raw talent into consistent greatness. And that’s what led him to win his 3rd cup series title last year. “You can’t dominate by talent alone. You’ve got to have the work ethic, the experience, and the drive to outlast everyone else.” A very seasoned Joey Logano shared his words of wisdom. However, his run has seen some roadblocks in the 2025 season so far.

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Joey Logano’s bumpy ride in his 2025 title defense

Joey Logano’s 2025 season has been far from perfect for the Penske driver. It has been a rollercoaster full of highs and lows, marked by only one victory at Texas and a series of near misses and setbacks. Despite leading more laps than any other Penske driver, the three-time champion has only one top-five and three top-ten finishes, placing him ninth in the driver standings. His frustration is palpable, as he admits, “I’ve left the racetrack every single weekend mad at something.”

The season began with promise but quickly turned challenging. At the Daytona 500, Logano led 43 laps before a crash ignited by a move to pierce a gap created by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ended his race prematurely. Subsequent races saw similar patterns: leading laps at Atlanta and Phoenix, but finishing outside the top 10 due to various issues, such as a restart violation at Phoenix and a pit stop mishap at Las Vegas that cost him 20 positions.

A significant blow came at Talladega. While he initially finished fifth, he was disqualified after post-race inspections revealed a technical violation that involved the rear spoiler. The setback was disheartening, given the team’s effort to rebound from earlier disappointments. Despite these troubles, Joey remains focused on the positive.

He raises the team’s strong performance in leading laps and accumulating stage points, saying, “We’ve been able to run upfront enough to score the stage points and to be able to be in contention.” His resilience and determination suggest that, while the season has been tough, he’s not counting himself out just yet. Having locked himself into the playoffs, he knows that what matters most is how you finish the season. We all saw this in 2024, when Logano won the championship despite an average finish of 17.1 and winning three out of his four races in the playoffs.

Do you think Joey Logano still has it to defend his championship crown and clinch his fourth title this season? Let us know in the comments!