Bittersweet win for Logano as Gibbs family mourns
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Joey Logano began his career at Joe Gibbs Racing, which signed him to a driver development deal when he was 15, and then put “Sliced Bread” in a NASCAR national series race seven days after his 18th birthday.
There was a plan to develop Logano, but it was scrapped when JGR fasttracked him to Cup after just 19 Xfinity Series starts because Hall of Famer Tony Stewart left ahead of the 2009 season.
Logano wasn’t ready for the big leagues, and JGR let him go after four rocky Cup seasons.
He landed at Team Penske and on Sunday won his second Cup championship with his victory at Phoenix Raceway in the NASCAR season finale. He joins Kyle Busch, his former teammate at Gibbs, as the only active NASCAR drivers with multiple Cup titles.
Logano earned both of his titles with Penske, and all of his success was achieved long after his Gibbs dismissal. That didn’t make Sunday any less conflicting for Logano, who learned shortly before the start of the race that Coy Gibbs, vice chairman at JGR, had died in his sleep hours after watching his 20-year-old son, Ty Gibbs, win the Xfinity Series championship.
“It’s such an interesting spot as you sit there preparing to run a championship race and then you hear. I don’t have words to explain how that is,” Logano said. “I feel for Ty more than anything. When you take all the championship racing stuff out, it doesn’t matter at the end of the day. It’s great that we’re up here and we won a championship, but something happens to your family, it doesn’t matter.”
Logano said Gibbs’ passing made for a somber season finale for the entire industry, and he grappled with the grief his former team owner must be experiencing. Joe Gibbs, both an NFL and NASCAR Hall of Famer, has now lost both of his children; J.D. Gibbs died in 2019 from degenerative neurological disease, and both brothers died roughly a month before their 50th birthdays.
“It’s a bittersweet type of thing because here we are winning a championship, and one of the people that’s a leader in our sport and someone I’ve known for a while is gone,” Logano said. “Our prayers and thoughts go to the Gibbs family and everyone over at JGR.