'Never enough': Reigning NASCAR champ Joey Logano on the hunt for more trophies

Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano sat down for an interview earlier this week with an impressive array of trophies behind him.

That included last year’s title, his 2015 Daytona 500 trophy and a grandfather clock from his 2018 win at Martinsville among others.

Yet, Logano’s mentality as he enters 2023 as a defending champion has nothing to do with what is behind him. It’s two, simple words and he dons them right on the front of a baseball cap for the world to see.

“Our theme this year is, ‘Never enough’ as a team: We don’t have enough trophies, we’re not working hard enough, we need to keep searching for more,” he said. “There is a piece of that complacency that people talk about after winning a championship and that’s the last thing I want on my race team or in myself, so we’re pushing hard to prevent that.”

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That mentality was on full display Thursday night, when Logano won the first of two Bluegreen Vacations Duel races to lock himself into a second-row starting position for Sunday's Daytona 500. The front row was set in Wednesday night’s time trials, with Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson sweeping the two spots.

"Anytime you can win at Daytona, this is the coolest victory lane to pull into," Logano said after winning his duel race. "It doesn't matter what race it is, if it’s a Duel, if it’s a tricycle race on the front straightaway, it doesn’t matter. Daytona is where you want to win. It’s special every time. It’s even more special Sunday, so this is a good start, for sure."

"Pushing hard" is another fitting two-word phrase that also aptly describes Logano to this point. He is entering his 15^th full-time season at the young age of 32 with the last 10 of those coming with Team Penske. Two championships and 31 wins have followed, with more than a few ruffled feathers along the way. Most recently, that perturbed plumage belongs to Kyle Busch.

It's hardly the first tiff between the pair of two-time champions. The two even came to blows after a race at Las Vegas in 2017.

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But the most recent spat started at the Busch Light Clash when Logano entered a corner hot, contacted Busch’s car and sent him spinning. Logano took responsibility immediately after the race but it still drew the ire of Busch who called Logano “two-faced” after the two exchanged pleasantries prerace.

When asked about the insult during The Morning Drive on SiriusXM Radio, Logano agreed.

“Am I two-faced? Yes, I am. Do I think there’s anything wrong with that? No I don’t,” Logano said. “I’ve heard Kyle say it before that I’m two-faced and that’s fine. I have a switch that I flip when it is time to go racing, I am out there to win and yes, I have to do what I got to do to win.”

The preseason feud has drawn the attention of others, most notably Dale Earnhardt Jr., who discussed the matter on The Dale Jr. Download podcast.

“Put them all in a closet, make them pissed off at each other where they can’t stand each other and then turn them loose and then the year begins,” Earnhardt Jr. said on The Dale Jr. Download podcast. “That is great.”

Logano agreed … to an extent.

“He wouldn’t say that if he was in the middle of a rivalry and let’s be honest, Junior really hasn’t been in the middle of many rivalries in the past,” Logano said. “So, from his standpoint, yes, it’s awesome and from a fan standpoint, yes, it’s awesome. But being in the middle of it, eh, it’s not really the most fun thing. It’s not really what you want but it’s competition and it’s going to happen.

“You have 40 drivers out there all competing to reach the same goal, only one is happy and then you have to race against them next week. It’s not like football. It’s not like basketball. It’s not like these other sports where you compete against a team and then you have three months to cool off before you play them again. No. Next week, boom, there they are.

“It’s just different. So, is it good for the sport? I agree with that, 100 percent. It definitely is. People love rivalries. Rivalry games have better ratings for sure and that kind of continues in any sport whether it’s NASCAR or anything else.”

Family, guacamole and sleeping through the Super Bowl

While Logano isn't about to slow down, or soften his tenacity on the track, life comes fast for everyone. Now the father of three children, all five-years-old or younger, his 2023 mantra may describe his attitude toward racing but it also paints an accurate picture of his sleep schedule. That's still true during the biggest sporting event of the year.

“The Super Bowl, if I’m being honest, I made some guac, which was great, my wife made some tacos, we put our kids to bed at halftime and I saw about half of the third quarter. And that’s all I know,” he said with a laugh.

Someone surely could fill him in about Patrick Mahomes’ heroics, an iffy holding call and a Kansas City Chiefs victory. For Logano, it’s an easy sacrifice to make for the family he admits makes winning much more special these days than perhaps it used to be. Especially when it comes to titles.

“I can’t really put into words very well, what it’s like, but celebrating with your family makes it special and now that my oldest, Hudson, is old enough to know what’s going on a little bit more, that makes it really special,” he said. “It’s funny, he’s a little shy. He just kind of hangs at my hip and that’s how he was after we won. I gave him a ride in the racecar and into Victory Lane and it was cool.

"We did some donuts together, but he didn’t say much. And then, the next morning we woke up and we were sitting there watching cartoons together and he had so many words to say about what had happened the night before. That part was really, really cool, watching him taking it all in and then when it was just us, he had plenty to talk about.”

Logano's legacy? Ask him later

Wins and championships, family and rivalries, they’re all things that will eventually tell the story of Logano’s career. Someday.

And yet, even as one of the sport’s veterans, in his early 30s, that day is still a long time from now.

So, even as Logano became just the 17^th driver to win multiple Cup Series championships, things like his place in history and his legacy in the sport never came to mind. A few days out from the Daytona 500, they still haven’t.

It's difficult to look back when you're focused on pushing ahead.

“Not yet and I don’t know if I ever will,” Logano said. “I’m just not wired that way. If you won yesterday, great. Well, tomorrow, you’re not the winner anymore. It’s short-lived victories in my mind and I just kind of live life that way and I guess for that reason, you kind of just keep moving to the next thing.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Reigning NASCAR champ Joey Logano on the hunt for more trophies