Logano looking for a historic momentum boost in 500th start with Team Penske

Joey Logano will celebrate his milestone 500th start with Team Penske with Sunday’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Logano made his first start with the team in 2013 at the Daytona 500. In a nod to the moment and to Team Penske’s 60th anniversary season, the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Mustang features a collage of photos underneath its primary scheme. Logano starts the Bank of America 400 from seventh.

“This has been a really special year for me, but even more so at Team Penske and for Roger Penske,” Logano said. “What this company has been able to accomplish for the last 60 years is second to none. It is truly incredible the motorsports accomplishments that this team has been able to do over different forms of motorsports. Whether it’s sports cars, NASCAR, IndyCar, you name it, Roger has been involved in it. It’s special for me to be a small piece of that, and when you look at this car, it is really neat.”

In his 499 starts driving for Penske, Logano has delivered 38 victories, 31 poles, and three championships. Roger Penske signed him after he lost his ride after four years with Joe Gibbs Racing.

“It’s always kind of a pinch-yourself moment when you see your car on there too,” Logano continued. “You say, ‘Oh, that’s pretty neat, and you get to drive this one again.’ So, there are a lot of special moments for Team Penske, but then I also feel like it’s a throwback car in a way as well, back to 2016 when we ran this thing a few times. It’s good to go back to some of those days when we were racing it in the playoffs too. It was a great car.”

Logano’s car will be a talking point for his family.

“My kids, I think they get their smartass-ness from me,” Logano said. “Some things are hereditary, I guess. It’s fun to talk about a lot of them. The majority of the wins they’ve been around for, which is kind of cool, but there were quite a few before them that they didn’t get to see or hear about.

“We don’t really talk about racing a whole bunch at home. A lot of times it’s just life, what’s going on there. It will be fun to talk about it a little bit, but, for the most part, it’s not something that comes up in our house a whole bunch.”

Beyond his success with Team Penske, Logano won two races with Joe Gibbs Racing over four seasons. He made 147 starts for Gibbs, bringing his career total to 646 going into Sunday’s race.

Among active Cup Series drivers, Logano is second only to Denny Hamlin in starts (752).