page_title: Joey Logano
section_title: 2018: Championship redemption
hierarchical_section_title: Joey Logano / Racing career / Cup Series / Team Penske / 2018: Championship redemption
caption_attribution_description: President Donald J. Trump honors 2018 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Joey Logano and team Penske owner Roger Penske Tuesday, April 30, 2019, on the South lawn of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
context_page_description: Joseph Thomas Logano, nicknamed "Sliced Bread", is an American professional stock car racing driver. He is currently signed full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 22 Ford Mustang GT for Team Penske, and part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 12 Ford Mustang GT for the same team. Logano was the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Champion. He previously drove the No. 20 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing from 2008 to 2012, collecting two wins, 16 top-five finishes and 41 top tens.
  Logano's first major NASCAR win came during the Meijer 300 at Kentucky Speedway in just his third start in the 2008 Nationwide Series. He became the youngest driver to win a Nationwide Series race at 18 years, 21 days old. The previous youngest was Casey Atwood in 1999 at 18 years, 313 days. Logano became the youngest winner in Cup Series history when he won the 2009 Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway at 19 years, 35 days. The previous youngest was Kyle Busch in 2005 at 20 years, 125 days. Logano is now the youngest winner in two of NASCAR's three top divisions.
context_section_description: 2018 was a very quiet but productive year for Sliced Bread. Logano started the season with a second-place finish in the Clash. He followed that up with a second-place finish in his duel, losing to teammate Ryan Blaney. Logano had his ups and downs at the 2018 Daytona 500 with a tire rub and a pit penalty but rebounded to finish fourth after avoiding a wreck with two laps left. At the 2018 GEICO 500, he held off Kurt Busch to win the race and lock him in the Playoffs.
  While the "Big Three" were making all the noise, Logano was quietly and patiently posting one of his best ever seasons. He had finished every race up until the second Daytona race, where he was involved in one of the pile-ups triggered by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Then weeks later he finished dead last for only the second time in his career at Watkins Glen. Early in the race, he had been going through the carousel before breaking an oil pan. Crew Chief Todd Gordon misinterpreted the crash-clock rules, forcing an end to Logano's day early for the first time at The Glen in his career. The rest of the regular season was nothing but mostly Top 10 finishes. He ended the regular season 6th in points into the playoffs.
  Logano started off the playoffs with a strong fourth-place finish at Las Vegas. Richmond, however was a quiet race but he ended it a lap down finishing 14th. A quiet race at Charlotte ended in a 10th-place finish and advanced to the next round. He started the Round of 12 by finishing third at Dover and fifth at Talladega. He became the evident flag bearer for his team. After the Kansas playoff race, Logano became the sole Penske driver in the Round of 8 of the Playoffs after teammates Keselowski and Blaney were eliminated. entering the round of 8, Logano had a good chance to make it to Homestead and win the championship. He won the fall Martinsville race after a fierce battle with Martin Truex Jr. towards the finish line and secured his spot in the Championship 4. He dominated leading over half of the laps in the whole race to secure his first Grandfather clock.
  He then made a consecutive streak of top-tens with a 3rd-place finish at Texas. Logano had a pretty bad weekend at Phoenix, but prior in the press, he felt that he was the favorite for the championship, he suffered a flat tire in the second stage of the race in which ended his race, and his sixth-consecutive Top 10 finishes, although he still advanced, even if he had finished second to fifth, in which he would have won a tiebreaker over Chase Elliott if he finished fifth.
  As the sun fell and the lights came on, Logano won at Homestead and became the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Champion after passing Martin Truex Jr. with an incredible pass with 12 laps to go.
  Rounding out a stout season, in addition to his first title, he ended the season scoring three wins, 13 Top 5’s, and 26 Top 10’s.
caption: Logano with President Donald Trump on the White House south lawn in 2019
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