Logano holds on for first Daytona 500 win

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - It's easy to forget Joey Logano is only 24 years old.

The Penske driver is entering his seventh season in the Sprint Cup Series, so it feels as if he's much older. But he was old enough to use that experience on Sunday in the Daytona 500.

Logano held off two former Daytona 500 winners in Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a green-white-checker finish to win his first Great American Race. His almost incredulous exclamations on the radio as he took the checkered flag expressed his recognition of the history of the race and how important it is to win.

'There's a really cool trophy out there that they put everyone's names on it. A lot of history there. It's neat to have your name associated with that,” Logano said. 'All week long you see a lot of the old race footage. They run that special on TV. You see what it means to be in the Daytona 500. It's an amazing feeling just to be in the race.

'Winning it, you can only imagine. It's 10 times cooler than that. It is the biggest race of the year. You're racing against the best of the best in stock car racing. It's really cool to be associated with the names that have won this thing before.”

It's hard to call such a young person a redemption story, but what he's been through in his career and the point he's gotten to definitely constitute one.

His first four seasons in Sprint Cup (2009-12) produced two wins, 16 top-fives and 41 top-10s in 144 starts, and a lot of negative buzz about not living up to the overwhelming hype with which he entered the sport. He lost his job at Joe Gibbs Racing and moved over to Team Penske, which has provided a career renaissance.

In 2014 alone, he had 16 top-fives, 22 top-10s and five wins. Going through what he's gone through has made such a young man all the wiser - and is finally paying off on the track.

'The success that we're starting to see, it's been a lot of fun. I'm so happy and thankful that I went through the times of trying to figure this out, the tougher times worrying about if you're going to have a job or not,” Logano said. 'Worrying about winning a race and having a job are two different things. When you get to the point of worrying about winning races, that's where you want to be in your career.

'Without going through those other points, it would never make me the person I am today on and off the racetrack. I'm thankful for it, to be here going through all that.”

Those facts were not lost on the guys he beat to the finish line, with both Earnhardt and former teammate Denny Hamlin noting his progress from where he was to where he is.

Hamlin, who finished fourth and has had a few run-ins with Logano since the latter's departure from JGR, said the move has obviously worked out for all parties involved.

'He's a different driver really. I think some situations just suit you better,” Hamlin said. 'You look at when he left the 20 car, the 20 car instantly ran better. When he left, he instantly ran better. I just think the situation didn't work for him. I think he matured and did his homework. He's really become one of the elite drivers in our sport.

'Every single weekend you know you're going to have to beat the 22. That's something we didn't say about Joey just three years ago.”

Logano's win officially came under caution after a multicar wreck on the final lap, taking away a chance for Harvick and Earnhardt, who were setting up a run, to make their final move.

Before the green-white-checker finish, the top 30 cars were racing three-wide from the top three to the last three, making for some of the most white-knuckle driving the racers had seen in the Daytona 500 in years.

'I mean, it's intense, especially when you're in the middle,” Hamlin said. 'I think the drivers have just gotten so smart over the last really year and a half. I mean, as far as working their mirror, working the side draft. Guys don't breakaway anymore. They don't let them get free because they just side draft so much.

'I mean, there was a good chance we could have ended the race three by three eight rows deep.”

In the end they didn't, and it was in that final wreck on the final lap that collected four-time Cup champion and three-time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon.

He finished 33rd with a crumpled up racecar in his final run in the sport's biggest race.

'For some reason I'm still smiling and enjoyed every minute of it,” Gordon said after the race. 'This was an amazing week, an amazing day. I'm just in this different place that's so foreign to me, but so incredible. I'm just taking it all in and enjoying every moment. Right now I'm sad this was my final Daytona 500, but I'm more upset we didn't have a shot to win at the end.”

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