When Joey Logano tells his origin story, it sounds like the kind of wild detour that movie characters take, except this one led to three NASCAR Cup Series championships and a career built on risk, speed and ambition.
Logano’s climb began long before most fans knew his name. Hailing from Middletown, Connecticut, Logano, who recently opened up on his battle with Alopecia, started racing quarter midgets at age six and by nine was ready for the next step.
The problem? Legends cars, little scream-mobiles powered by motorcycle engines, required drivers to be at least 12 years old. So Logano and his father, Tom Logano, rewrote the rulebook — literally.
“We had a birth certificate…we kind of whited it out and changed my name and changed my age a little bit,” Logano confessed.
At ten years old, his paperwork claimed he was twelve. It worked… until it didn’t. Their plan included an inside-helped records swap, but the old certificate wasn’t removed. That triggered suspicion and scrutiny. “Two birth certificates. No more fun.”
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The age limit later rose to 14, and Logano tried the same trick again. He taught himself to race against older competition, got in a crash and needed ambulance attention. When the medic asked his age, he gave the fake one. His father knew the charade was over.
It wasn’t punishment that defined the moment, though — it was learning. Logano says the experience of battling older, stronger drivers as a pre-teen made him tougher and more experienced than many racers years older.
By 18, he was in the NASCAR Cup Series, and by his late 20s, he had captured his first championship.
The decision to bend the age rule wasn’t about defiance so much as progression. His father saw a driver who out-paced his peers and believed the only way to grow was to compete up.
Logano’s efforts were soon noticed, marked as the “next Jeff Gordon” and praised by greats like Mark Martin.
In the end, the seemingly risky gambit didn’t derail him, but rather helped set the foundation. The advanced experience, the courage to compete early and the willingness to rush in ahead of schedule paid off. When he arrived in the Cup Series and eventually joined Team Penske, he already had an edge most rookies didn’t.
Logano’s early risks have eventually transformed into legacy moments. He’s now a three-time Cup Series champion (2018, 2022, 2024) and recognized among the sport’s all-time greats.