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Expect Bigger Things From Joey Logano This Season

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The sixth time and the second team was apparently the charm for Joey Logano. After years of hype, even earning the nickname “sliced bread” along the way, Logano finally delivered a championship-caliber season in finishing fourth and qualifying for the championship race at Homestead last year.

Along the way, Logano racked up five wins, two more than the previous five years combined. Logano also registered career highs in top 10s (22) and top fives (16) and was consistently among the fastest cars week in and week out.

It was his second year driving for Penske Racing after spending the first four seasons of his career driving the No. 20 car for Joe Gibbs Racing. There’s no doubt that speed directly fed his success as well, as he and teammate Brad Keselowski combined for 11 wins in 36 races.

Speaking of Keselowski, it’s hard to imagine a better teammate for Logano. Keselowski entered NASCAR as a young driver as well, but without nearly as much expectation as was on Logano. Yet Keselowski worked and grinded his way up, eventually leading to a NASCAR championship in 2012. He has also shown the ability and willingness to put his car anywhere at anytime if need be, and that aggressiveness could pay dividends if Logano should ever need a push at the end of a race.

But the real question is how does Logano go about following up a season like 2014 for the first time in his career? Still just 24 years old, there’s no doubt Logano has enough time left to accomplish pretty much whatever he wants. Talent has never been a question for Logano, since becoming the youngest driver to ever win both a Nationwide and Sprint Cup race early in his career.

Maybe most importantly was how well Logano handled the pressure down the stretch and how calm he remained for the most part throughout the course of the year. That kind of poise, along with Logano’s obvious talent and Penske’s team speed, should spell big things moving forward for the young driver. Whether or not one of those things ends up being a Sprint Cup title remains to be seen, but after last season, it’s well within the realm of possibility.

Ryan Pritt is a NASCAR writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter @RPritt, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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